Comparison of turbulent structures and energy fluxes over exposed and debris-covered glacier ice: Datasets

This repository contains data of near surface data of turbulence conditions measured simultaneously over exposed ice and a 0.08 m thick supraglacial debris cover on Suldenferner, a small glacier in the Italian Alps. It is related to the following publication:

Nicholson, L. and Stiperski, I. (2020) Comparison of turbulent structures and energy fluxes over exposed and debris-covered glacier ice.  Journal of Glaciology.

The repository contains the following files

(1) Overview figure of the locations of the installed weather stations collecting data used in the analysis, and images of the eddy covariance installations 

• Filename: overview.tif

(2) 30 minute average meteorological data from the automatic weather station (AWS) on the debris-covered glacier surface with ca. 0.09 m thick debris cover.

• Filename: aws.csv
• Location: 46.496 °N / 10.569 °E / ~2625 m
• Time period: 11.08.2015 13:30 – 14.08.2015 21:00
• Variables - unit: listed in variables&units.pdf

(3) 5 minute data from the eddy covariance station on the clean ice glacier surface.

• Filename: ecci.csv
• Location: 46.498°N /10.560°E / ~ 2780 m
• Time period: 11.08.2015 13:42 – 14.08.2015 20:57
• Variables - unit: listed in variables&units.pdf

(4) 5 minute data from the eddy covariance station on the debris-covered glacier surface with ca. 0.08 m thick debris cover.

• Variables - unit: listed in variables&units.pdf
• Location: 46.495 °N / 10.572 °E / ~ 2600 m
• Time period: 11.08.2015 13:42 – 14.08.2015 20:57
• Variables - unit: listed in variables&units.pdf

(5) A list of the variables and units used in the datafiles.

• Filename: variables&units.pdf

The instrumentation locations can be seen in the overview figure. 

The automatic weather station consists of a Kipp and Zonen CNR1 4-way radiation sensor, a shielded Vaisala HMP45c temperature and relative humidity sensor, and a Young 05103 anemometer. 30-minute averages and standard deviations of variables were recorded by a Campbell C3000 datalogger. Temperature and relative humidity are also sampled at 30-minute intervals allowing the vapor pressure to be calculated at this interval. 

The eddy covariance instrumentation was identical at both stations (ecci and ecdc) and consisted of two segmented masts drilled into the ice with sensors mounted at a height of 1.6 m on a cross arm spanning the vertical masts. A CSAT 3D sonic anemometer and KH20 hygrometer sampling data at a frequency of 20Hz were mounted parallel to the surface and facing obliquely across-glacier at a bearing of 255° so as to capture both up and downglacier winds. A shielded Vaisala HMP45 was installed on the EC mast to record 1-minute averages of air temperature, relative humidity and vapor pressure. Data were recorded using Campbell Scientific CR1000 data loggers with compact flash card storage modules. Power was provided by 60Ah deep cycle batteries connected to 20 W solar panels. 

The data provided here is gap-filled data. The eddy covariance station over debris-covered ice was installed on 10 August 2015, and the one over clean ice was installed on 11 August 2015. At ecdc, a faulty solar panel regulator resulted in this station losing power on 15 August. At ecci two instrument failures occurred; the Vaisala instrument on the afternoon of 12 August and the KH20 at the end of 14 August. Air pressure was not recorded at any of the three stations. Missing data was filled on the basis of multiple regression transformation of data measured at nearby stations, as described fully in the publication. Pressure data were filled in with data from the nearby Madritsch weather station, operated by the Autonomous Province of Bozen. Missing temperature and vapor pressure data spanning 12-14 August at the eddy station over clean ice was filled in with data from the glacier automatic weather station.

Thanks are due to the Gutgsell family at the Hintergrathütte for continued support of our research activities and (in alphabetical order) Michael Adamer, Federico Covi, Costanza del Gobbo, Lukas Hammerer, Irmgard Juen, Marius Massimo, Kristin Richter, Reto Stauffer and Anna Wirbel for assistance in the field. Permission to work on Suldenferner is granted by Stelvio National Park. This research was funded by the Austrian Science Fund Grant numbers V309, P28521 and T781-N32.