Abstract:
Ground truth measurements in the form of snow/ice cores were obtained from three sites in 2006: Rothschild Island, Latady Island and Smyley Island. The sites selected corresponded to the position of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) deployed during the previous season. At both the Rothschild Island and Smyley Island sites the AWS - due to an unprecedented amount of snowfall - had been buried. Therefore, two cores, 8m and 12m in length, were obtained from the approximate position of the AWS, in addition to the sampling of a snow pit. At the Latady Island site, the top 60cm of the 5m AWS was protruding above the surface - again, due to an unprecedented amount of snowfall. A diagonally descending trench was dug to recover the AWS and two cores were collected at this site.
This work was carried out as part of a project to understand how air mass origin and meteorology affect the mass accumulation of snow in areas of the Antarctic Peninsula, and how the atmosphere's properties are preserved in the snow,
Photographs of the expedition showing the ground layout, the situation of the cores and what was done when they were gathered are available and stored with the data.
Keywords:
air mass origin, atmospheric preservation, snow mass accumulation
| Access Constraints: | Requests for data can be made via the UK Polar Data Centre (UK PDC) at BAS. |
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| Creation Date: | 2007-11-20 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK PDC |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Gareth Marshall |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Georgina Miles |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr John Turner |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Thomas Lachlan-Cope |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Robert Mulvaney |
| Role(s) | Investigator |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Published references: Miles GM, Marshall GJ, McConnell JR, Aristarain AJ. 2008. Recent accumulation variability and change on the Antarctic Peninsula from the ERA40 reanalysis. International Journal of Climatology 28: 1409-1422. Miles, G., Marshall, G., Turner, J., Mulvaney, R., & Lachlan-Cope, T. 2006. Improving Ice Core Interpretation: The Role of Storm-Track Changes on Sub-Annual Peninsula Precipitation Variability. Antarctic Funding Initiative, Fifth Workshop, New Hall, Cambridge, 20-21 September 2006 Miles, G., Marshall, G., Turner, J., Mulvaney, R., & Lachlan-Cope, T. 2005. Improving Ice Core Interpretation: The Role of Storm Track Changes on the Sub-Annual Peninsula Precipitation Variability. Antarctic Funding Initiative, Fourth Workshop, New Hall, Cambridge, 27-28th September 2005. Unpublished references: AFI4-09_Marshall_field_report (BAS Archives) Project reference: AFI project 04/09. Improving ice-core interpretation. |
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| Lineage: | ||
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2006-01-29 |
| End Date | 2006-02-11 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -73 |
| Northernmost | -69.5 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -79 |
| Easternmost | -72.5 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | 8m |
| Max Depth | 12m |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Rothschild Island |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Latady Island |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Smyley Island |
| Sensor(s): |
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| Data Collection: | At the Latady Island site drilling during the daytime proved to be challenging, as the warm air in the hole and around the bit after extraction caused it to heat, melt snow on it, then re-freeze quickly when re-inserted. On occasion this caused the teeth on the drill bit that grasps the core to freeze in the open position this resulted in the first core being somewhat shorter than anticipated. The second core was drilled over night in far cooler conditions, and was extremely successful. |
| Distribution: | |
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| Distribution Media | Online FTP |
| Distribution Size | 700 Mb |
| Distribution Format | N/A |
| Fees | See Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Data Policy |
| Data Storage: | This data is managed by the UK Polar Data Centre (UK PDC) Physical Sciences Data Manager at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The data for both GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00293 and GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00294 is 700 MB and consist of Text files; MS Excel files, MS Word files, Postscript, Encapsulated Postscript, PDF, IDL files The data is held on the BAS Storage Area Network (SAN). |