10 years of temperature and wind observation on a 45 m tower at Dome C, East Antarctic plateau

Abstract

Abstract. Long-term, continuous in situ observations of the near-surface atmospheric boundary layer are critical for many weather and climate applications. Although there is a proliferation of surface stations globally, especially in and around populous areas, there are notably fewer tall meteorological towers with multiple instrumented levels. This is particularly true in remote and extreme environments such as the East Antarctic plateau. In the article, we present and analyze 10 years of data from six levels of meteorological instrumentation mounted on a 42 m tower located at Dome C, East Antarctica, near the Concordia research station, producing a unique climatology of the near-surface atmospheric environment (Genthon et al., 2021a, b). Monthly temperature and wind data demonstrate the large seasonal differences in the near-surface boundary layer dynamics, depending on the presence or absence of solar surface forcing. Strong vertical temperature gradients (inversions) frequently develop in calm, winter conditions, while vertical convective mixing occurs in the summer, leading to near-uniform temperatures along the tower. Seasonal variation in wind speed is much less notable at this location than the temperature variation as the winds are less influenced by the solar cycle; there are no katabatic winds as Dome C is quite flat. Harmonic analysis confirms that most of the energy in the power spectrum is at diurnal, annual and semi-annual timescales. Analysis of observational uncertainty and comparison to reanalysis data from the latest generation of ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) reanalyses (ERA5) indicate that wind speed is particularly difficult to measure at this location. Data are distributed on the PANGAEA data repository at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932512 (Genthon et al., 2021a) and https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.932513 (Genthon et al., 2021b).

Ice fog observed at cirrus temperatures at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau

“…The French-Italian Concordia station is located on the Dome C, high Antarctic Plateau (75°06' S, 123°20' E, 3233 m a.s.l, Local Time LT = UTC+8 h). The landscape is a homogeneous and flat snow desert where the monthly mean 2 m temperatures ranges from about 246 K in austral summer to about 208 K in the polar night in winter (Genthon et al, 2021). During austral summer, the atmospheric boundary layer experiences a marked diurnal cycle with an alternation of diurnal shallow convection -when the sun is high above the horizon -and nocturnal stable stratification.…”

“…30-min average data have been used in this paper. Details on data acquisition and processing are given in (Genthon et al, 2021). The downward long-wave and short-wave radiative fluxes are measured at the Dome C Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) station using two Kipp and Zonen CM22 secondary standard pyranometers and two Kipp and Zonen CG4 pyrgeometers (Lanconelli et al, 2011;.…”

GABLS4 intercomparison of snow models at Dome C in Antarctica

“…Data describing the local climate were measured at Dome C on a mast equipped with sensors (Genthon et al, 2021), for a 15 d period from 1 to 15 December 2009, the period during which air and surface temperatures are warmest in this region. They constitute a complete data set to feed surface models.…”

Water vapor in cold and clean atmosphere: a 3-year data set in the boundary layer of Dome C, East Antarctic Plateau

“…At Dome C (Sect. 2), the annual average daily mean 3 m air temperature is −52 • C, ranging from −64 • C in June to −31 • C in January (Genthon et al, 2021b). It is cold even in the summer because the permanent snow cover has a high albedo and reflects much of the incoming solar radiation.…”

“…The setup design was later improved (Fig. 1) for better air circulation and enhanced protection against possible radiation biases, and three new thermohygrometer instrument packages were then deployed at ∼ 3, ∼ 18 and ∼ 42 m above the surface along the ∼ 42 m tower at Dome C (Genthon et al, 2021b). From then on, the observing system remained unchanged and operated almost continuously, albeit with some operational challenges, providing a quasi-continuous 3-year time series of the atmospheric humidity profile in the nearsurface layers of the high Antarctic Plateau.…”