Pseudovertical temperature profiles give insight into winter
Details of Research
TitlePseudovertical temperature profiles give insight into winter evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer over the McMurdo Dry Valleys of AntarcticaAbstractMeasuring routine vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature is critical in understanding stability and the dynamics of the boundary layer. Routine monitoring in remote areas such as the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) of Antarctica is logistically difficult and expensive. Pseudovertical profiles that were derived from a network of inexpensive ground temperature sensors planted on valley sidewalls (up to 330m above valley floor), together with data from a weather station and a numerical weather prediction model, provided a longterm climatological description of the evolution of the winter boundary layer over the MDV. In winter, persistent valley cold pools (VCPs) were common, lasting up to 2 weeks. The VCPs were eroded by warm-air advection from aloft associated with strong winds, increasing the temperature of the valley by as much as 25 K. Pseudovertical datasets as described here can be used for model validation. Copyright2013 American Meteorological Society.AcknowledgementsThe authors thank Antarctic New Zealand for providing logistical support for this research. The data were kindly provided by the nzTABS program.
TypeArticleCitationZawar-Reza, P., Katurji, M., Soltanzadeh, I., Dallafior, T., Zhong, S., Steinhoff, D., Storey, B. and Craig Cary, S. (2013). Pseudovertical temperature profiles give insight into winter evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer over the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 52(7): 1664-1669IdentifierZawar-Reza2013Relevancerank5
