Comments on: Antarctica – digging out the data http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/ by Steve McIntyre Fri, 24 May 2013 05:04:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: AnonyMoose http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175356 Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:03:48 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175356 Re: MarcH (#52),

Amundsen-Scott weather station… current location at end:
* Was apparently replaced with FMQ-19 equipment around 2004. New equipment in vicinity of airport.
** http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/meeting2008/presentations/Day2/MLazzara_AMOMFW_2008-AMRC.pdf
** http://www.coastal.org/ftp/pub/SPoleWeather.pdf
* “The reports from the American station Amundsen-Scott (89009) were patchy with only about 30% of reports being received at Cambridge and Hobart during both of the trial periods.” http://ams.allenpress.com/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0434(1999)014%3C0811%3AAMOOTG%3E2.0.CO%3B2&ct=1
* I don’t see the weather instruments around the first station. “The original station was last occupied in 1975″ http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/livingsouthpole/station56.jsp
* The South Pole Atmospheric Research Observatory (ARO) (aka new CAF) is upwind of the main station. Webcam on this building. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/observatory.html
* There is meteorology equipment on the ARO, but (at bottom) doesn’t look like it runs often. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/spo/
* Photo of “ARO and the Tower”. Whatever the tower is for, the next photo shows cable or pipe between them. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/Photo_Gallery/Field_Sites/SPO/Emrys_Hall_Album/tn/ARO%20and%20the%20Tower.jpg.html
* The old Clean Air Facility (upper left of photo) was upwind of the dome station. http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/pole-from-air.jpg
* Looks like most of the “stuff” is downwind from the two main buildings. http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/Photo_Gallery/Field_Sites/SPO/south_pole_station/021105-F-4916M-003.jpg
* I’m not spotting weather gear yet. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/SPSM.05.jpg
* Photo “Below the PIR”. (Precision Infrared Radiometer?) http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/Photo_Gallery/Field_Sites/SPO/Emrys_Hall_Album/tn/Below%20the%20PIR.JPG.html
* How many daily flights equal a barbeque grill? http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/Photo_Gallery/Field_Sites/SPO/Emrys_Hall_Album/tn/Blast%20off.JPG.html
* There are several flights a day during the summer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen_scott_south_pole_station#Airstrip
* I didn’t find “79 Meteor Radar Shack (mobile building)” http://www.southpolestation.com/maps/siteplans.html
* Ah, here is the current weather station:

“The” weather station actually encompasses two sites: one on the runway, which is just very thick ice, and
the other upwind from the entire facility, aptly named “The Clean Air Site”.
The station on the runway measures Wind Speed and Direction, Visibility, and Cloud Height. The Clean
Air Site consists of Wind Speed and Direction, three Barometric Pressure sensors, two Aspirated Air
Temperature and Humidity sensors, and a Solar Radiation sensor.

http://bifaa.com/doc/18330_It%27s_Up…_It%27s_Running…_It%27s_C-C-Cold!!!

]]> By: Phil. http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175355 Sat, 07 Feb 2009 04:58:59 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175355 Re: Anthony Watts (#75),

Anthony Watts:
February 6th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
bender which -40 ? F or C

Very droll! Both. ;)

]]> By: AnonyMoose http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175354 Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:58:42 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175354 Interesting. Poster session notes “On the one
hand, for stations located in Western Antarctica detected climatic jumps take place mostly under, or
following, La Nia or neutral conditions. On the other hand, although detected climatic jumps for the
stations located in Eastern Antarctica take place under a wide variety of conditions, they often do so
under, or following, El Nio events”

“Detecting climatic jumps in 500 HPA geopotential height monthly anomalies in Antarctica”

]]> By: Anthony Watts http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175353 Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:34:55 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175353 bender which -40 ? F or C

]]> By: bender http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175352 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:59:03 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175352 Re: Anthony Watts (#36),
At what temperature do the batteries fail on these AWSs? -40?

]]> By: Tim McHenry http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175351 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:55:43 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175351 Well it seems they won’t have to keep digging forever. When it all melts we will be looking for up to 21ft sea rise according to: This Story carried by FoxNews
Needless to say, Peter Clark makes many assumptions concerning our demise.

]]> By: Tegiri Nenashi http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175350 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:22:04 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175350 Re: MarcH (#68)

It seems like the main difference is the vertical scale. Yes, my link lacks vertical resolution. However, consider that my source provides temperature graphs at other antarctic stations in the same scale. As soon as we look into, say Antarctic Peninsula, we notice much more variation.

Ironically, warmists often claim “More extreme weather events” so increase in standard deviation formally proves their point. This is nonsense, of course, because their pet theory “predicts” smaller temperature difference between the poles and equator, which should lead to smaller temperature gradients…

]]> By: D. Patterson http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175349 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:54:03 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175349 Re: Jeremy (#69),

Here is what they have to say about their AWS batteries:

The AWS unit is powered by six to twelve 40 ampere-hour 12 volt gel-cell batteries charged by one or two 10 Watt solar panels. At the South Pole, 12 batteries and two solar panels are sufficient to operate the AWS unit through the year, while six batteries and one solar panel are adequate on the Ross Ice Shelf. Several of the AWS units have operated on the same batteries and solar panel for 6 to 10 years.
http://uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu/aboutaws.html

]]> By: Jeff Alberts http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175348 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:56:10 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175348 Re: Tegiri Nenashi (#64),

I have more of a problem that it’s named “Amundsen-Scott”. Scott shouldn’t be included, he came in last…

]]> By: Jeremy http://climateaudit.org/2009/02/04/snow-job-in-antarctica-digging-out-the-data/#comment-175347 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:51:17 +0000 http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=5105#comment-175347 So, solar panels are used to power these stations, presumably with battery backup. Will those batteries last the whole southern-hemisphere winter? Please correct me here, but if they actually get winter temperature data from those stations, that’s amazing. That’s pretty demanding on batteries considering the Antarctic can get a few months of no sun. In such cold temperatures, I am actually very impressed at that battery technology.

In fact, if they are lasting the whole winter, those batteries would seem to even beat what we put into space for mars rovers, etc… Which isn’t that surprising since Space has weight and material considerations that Antarctica doesn’t.

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