Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU) Antarctic automatic weather station data, including surface radiation balance (1995–2022)

Abstract

In cooperation with multiple institutes, the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU) at Utrecht University has operated automated weather stations (AWSs) at 19 locations on the Antarctic ice sheet from 1995 through 2022. Besides standard meteorological measurements (pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed, and direction), these stations include measured short-wave and long-wave radiation components and surface height, thereby allowing for the reliable in situ quantification of the surface energy balance (SEB) and surface mass balance (SMB) at hourly and 2 h temporal resolution. This unique dataset can be used for climate model evaluation and development, for the validation of remote sensing products, for the quantification of long-term climatological changes, for the interpretation of ice cores, and for process understanding in general. This paper describes the dataset and the applied measurement corrections. The total dataset contains 157 station years of data, of which 54 % include both SEB and SMB observations, and is available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.974080 (Van Tiggelen et al., 2024).