HEFEX II: Automatic Weather Station observations and ICON-LES simulations at Hintereisferner glacier (Austria)

This dataset contains meteorological observations and high-resolution atmospheric model simulations collected and produced during the HEFEX II field campaign at Hintereisferner.

Observational data (2023-08-16 to 2023-09-10)

The observational component consists of automatic weather station (AWS) measurements collected on and around Hintereisferner during the campaign. Variables include standard meteorological parameters such as:

• air temperature
• relative humidity
• wind speed and wind direction
• surface pressure

Additional information and data requests for the permanent AWS are available here:

• Station "Im Hinteren Eis" (IHE): https://acinn-data.uibk.ac.at/pages/im-hinteren-eis.html
• Station "Hintereis" (STHE): https://acinn-data.uibk.ac.at/pages/station-hintereis.html

Model simulations (2023-08-15 to 2023-09-14)

The dataset also includes large-eddy simulations performed with ICON in LES mode (ICON-LES) at a horizontal resolution of 51 m for the same time period as the observations.

The simulations were designed to reproduce the atmospheric conditions during the HEFEX II intensive observation period and allow direct comparison with in-situ measurements.

For selected locations corresponding to observational sites, the dataset contains time series of atmospheric variables extracted from the model output.

Temporal resolution

Two temporal resolutions are provided:

• Hourly instantaneous data (values at the full hour)
• 30-minute averaged data (30min prior to timestamp)

Data structure

The dataset contains:

• AWS observations from the HEFEX II campaign
• ICON-LES simulation outputs for the same time period
• model time series extracted at locations corresponding to measurement sites
• metadata describing station locations, variable definitions, and units

Purpose

This dataset enables:

• evaluation of high-resolution atmospheric simulations against glacier observations
• investigation of glacier boundary-layer processes
• analysis of glacier wind dynamics and microclimate interactions