A physically based method for correcting temperature data measured by naturally ventilated sensors over snow

Abstract

During the snowmelt period in 1998, air-temperature data were acquired at 1 min intervals using different measurement systems as part of a field campaign in the Kärkevagge, Swedish Lapland. A comparison reveals that temperatures from naturally ventilated sensors exceed temperatures from aspirated sensors by as much as 6.2 K. Errors in temperature are closely connected to high values of upwelling shortwave radiation and are larger in periods of low wind speed. Measurement errors result from the instantaneous radiation conditions and propagate over the next measurements due to slow response time of the naturally ventilated sensor. A physically based method is developed for correcting temperature data influenced by radiation errors, which requires additional measurements of wind speed and upwelling shortwave radiation. Coefficients of the correction formula are automatically determined from the erroneous temperature data, so the method is independent of accurate air-temperature measurements. The high quality of the correction method could be validated by accurate psychrometer measurements. One of the most important applications is the computation of sensible-heat fluxes from snow-covered surfaces during the snowmelt period using the bulk-acrodynamic method, which is greatly improved by the new correction method.