A tethersonde system by Vaisala (DigiCORA TT12) was applied to measure high-resolution vertical profiles of atmospheric variables (air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and air pressure) up to 2000 meters. The instrumentation consisted of 7 m3 helium filled balloon for lifting sondes, an electrical winch, two sondes suspended on the tether line below the balloon at approximately 10 m vertical intervals, and a ground station.
Sondes were ascended as high as possible at every measurement. Depending on the cloud conditions, wind speed, and the buoyancy of the balloon, the height of the soundings varied, but was in average 1212 m. Each profile includes ascending and descending of the sonde. Sampling interval of the sondes was in average 5-6 seconds.
Length of the soundings was variable depending of the weather conditions. Tethersonde system is wind sensitive and there were some temporal gaps in planned measurements when soundings could not be performed due to the strong winds and heavy snowfall.
Since 17th of October soundings were done in collaboration with University Centre in Svalbard. Measurements then were simultaneously carried out in Adventdalen fjord. These synchronized atmosphere soundings were aimed to study ABL at different places in a same time.
Data is checked manually for errors but no averaging over the sondes and heights is done. Some distinct obviously erroneous signals and spike values were removed from the data. More about the methods is described in ReadMe text file.
Arctic fjords are usually surrounded by a complex orography of mountains, valleys and glaciers, which complicates the dynamics of the air flow. Between different fjords in Svalbard temperature and wind regime can vary largely in space. Due to the combined effects of the complex orography and thermal heterogeneity of the fjord surface, the dynamic and thermodynamic processes affecting the state of the ABL are complex. Although several studies have addressed boundary-layer and mesoscale processes in the Svalbard region, there is still lack of thorough observational analysis on temperature and humidity inversions and low-level jets, based on an extensive dataset. The major challenges still remain in understanding several features in the stable boundary layer (SBL).
The fieldwork campaign in Hornsund (Svalbard archipelago) was part of the project focusing on a vertical structure of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and its possible changes in the Polar regions. Our study is motivated to better understand the ABL structure over fjords. There is need to improve numerical weather prediction and climate models and to improve the forecasting capabilities on near-surface weather. Gathering more in situ data would allow us to rise quality of analyses of ABL characteristics and aim better on these goals.
Dataset consist 52 vertical profiles from tethersonde soundings. These soundings were carried out on a regular basis in Polish Polar Station in Hornsund between 7 October and 1 November 2014.
SA Archimedes: Climate and environmental changes in polar regions related to global changes and their influence on climate variability in the northern Europe (SLOOM12073T)
