References

ESSD

Earth System Science Data

ESSD

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

1866-3516

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/essd-5-155-2013

Climatology and time series of surface meteorology in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard

Maturilli

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6818-7383

¹ Herber

² König-Langlo

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany

12 04 2013

5 1 155 163

2013

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A consistent meteorological dataset of the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund (11.9° E, 78.9° N) spanning the 18 yr-period 1 August 1993 to 31 July 2011 is presented. Instrumentation and data handling of temperature, humidity, wind and pressure measurements are described in detail. Monthly mean values are shown for all years to illustrate the interannual variability of the different parameters. Climatological mean values are given for temperature, humidity and pressure. From the climatological dataset, we also present the time series of annual mean temperature and humidity, revealing a temperature increase of +1.35 K per decade and an increase in water vapor mixing ratio of +0.22 g kg−1 per decade for the given time period, respectively. With the continuation of the presented measurements, the Ny-Ålesund high resolution time series will provide a reliable source to monitor Arctic change and retrieve trends in the future. The relevant data are provided in high temporal resolution as averages over 5 (1) min before (after) 14 July 1998, respectively, placed on the PANGAEA repository (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.793046"target="_blank">doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.793046</a>). While 6 hourly synoptic observations in Ny-Ålesund by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute reach back to 1974 (Førland et al., 2011), the meteorological data presented here cover a shorter time period, but their high temporal resolution will be of value for atmospheric process studies on shorter time scales.

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