Winter 1981 Antarctic Weather Observations from Law Dome Traverses

1981 winter records document air pressure, air temperature, wind speed, visibility, and weather notes taken several times daily during traverses over Law Dome and Wilkes Land. The data was collected by the Australian Antarctic Division and is stored in their physical records store. Observations were recorded in 1981.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal patterns in air_temperature and wind_speed to characterize winter conditions on the Antarctic ice sheet.
• Correlate air_pressure readings with visibility and weather_notes to study storm events during the traverse period.
• Use the time-series of meteorological variables to validate or calibrate historical reanalysis datasets for the Law Dome region.

Strengths

• Multi-variable time-series data including air pressure, temperature, wind speed, and visibility.
• Observations were taken several times per day, providing high temporal resolution for the 1981 winter period.

Limitations

• The dataset's exact size, row count, and completeness are unknown.
• Data is stored in physical documents, implying digitization and standardization may be required for analysis.
• Limited to a single winter season, restricting long-term trend analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Division (AU_AADC).

Collection Method

Manual records taken during winter traverses over Law Dome and Wilkes Land.

Time Range

Winter 1981.

Freshness

Historical data from 1981; not updated.

Geography

Law Dome and Wilkes Land, Antarctica.