Antarctic Wind and Temperature Profiles from Mount Odin Field Test

A field test of an acoustic wind profiler on the slopes of Mount Odin in Antarctica's Wright Valley. The project collected wind speed, wind direction, and dry bulb temperature data from fixed sites at 95m, 200m, 750m, and 1070m elevations, supplemented by handheld measurements from two traverses. The instrument was developed by SCIOPS and operated successfully at the 750m site, though a software error caused the loss of profiler data from that location.

Use Cases

• Analyzing vertical wind shear and temperature gradients based on measurements from multiple fixed elevations.
• Studying local wind patterns in a polar desert valley based on wind speed and direction data.
• Evaluating the field performance of portable acoustic wind profilers based on the described test protocol.
• Comparing handheld instrument readings with fixed-site data from the described traverses.

Strengths

• Data collection spanned multiple fixed sites at specific elevations (95m, 200m, 750m, 1070m).
• The description details a clear field test methodology involving fixed sites and traverses.
• The acoustic profiler was confirmed to operate successfully in real-time at the 750m site.

Limitations

• The core profiler data from the 750m site was lost due to a software error.
• Row count, column definitions, and file formats are unknown.
• The temporal coverage and last update date are unspecified.

Provenance

Source

nasa_earthdata

Collection Method

Field measurements from fixed instrument sites and handheld traverses.

Geography

Wright Valley, slopes of Mount Odin, Antarctica.