Automatic weather station set-up, maintenance, and data retrieval

Since 2004/05 we deployed an automatic weather station on Evans Piedmont Glacier and since 2007/08 also at Skinner Saddle. The data permit the calculation of transfer functions between ice core proxies and meteorological parameters, such as temperature, precipitation, meso-scale atmospheric circulation pattern, katabatic winds, and seasonality of snow accumulation. In addition, a new snow accumulation sensor and high precision snow temperature probes allow us to monitor snow accumulation rates, the potential influence of snow loss through sublimation, wind erosion or melt, and the quality of preservation of the meteorological signal in the snow. Furthermore, the data allow us to estimate the uncertainty of re-analysis data (NCEP/NCAR and ERA-40 data) in the region. At the request of Antarctica New Zealand, the automatic weather station was retrieved from Skinner Saddle this year.

Fig. 1: Automatic weather station at Skinner Saddle