During the Antarctic winter of 1986, BAS ran a comprehensive programme of boundary layer and turbulence measurements at Halley research station . Halley is situated on an extensive flat ice shelf and the strong surface inversions that form in winter provide an ideal environment for studying the stably-stratified boundary layer.
The instrumentation installed included three Kaijo-Denki ultrasonic anemometers on a 32 m mast for turbulence measurements, together with conventional anemometers and resistance thermometers for profile measurements. A Sensitron sodar provided some information on boundary layer structure at higher levels and daily radiosonde profiles are available. A dataset of hourly mean fluxes and profiles is available for the period of the experiment - contact J.C. King for details.
References:
King,JC (1990): Some measurements of turbulence over an antarctic ice shelf. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 116, 379-400.
King,JC; Anderson,PS (1988): Installation and performance of the STABLE instrumentation at Halley. BAS Bull. 79, 65-77.
King,JC; Mobbs,SD; Darby,MS; Rees,JM (1987): Observations of an internal gravity wave in the lower troposphere at Halley, Antarctica. Bound.-Layer Meteorol. 39, 1-13.
King,JC; Mobbs,SD; Rees,JM; Anderson,PS; Culf,AD (1989): The stable Antarctic Boundary Layer Experiment at Halley Station. Weather 44, 398-405.
Rees,JM; Mobbs,SD (1988): Studies of internal gravity waves at Halley Base, Antarctica using wind observations. Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 114, 939-966.
In order to answer some of the questions raised by STABLE, a second experiment was run at Halley during the Antarctic winter of 1991. The instrumentation was similar to that used during STABLE but was augmented by:
i) An array of six microbarographs for studying the propagation of internal gravity waves
ii) Instruments for measuring water vapour fluxes and humidity profiles
iii) A set of particle counters for measuring blowing snow density and flux
Data from this experiment are still being analysed, but major results published so far include:
Anderson,PS; Mobbs,SD; King,JC; McConnell,I; Rees,JM (1992): A microbarograph for internal gravity wave studies in Antarctica. Antarctic Sci. 4, 241-248.
Anderson,PS; Dover,SE; Mobbs,SD; King,JC; Rees,JM (1993): Studies of blowing snow at Halley, Antarctica. In: Preprints, 4th international conference on Southern Hemisphere meteorology and oceanography. American Meteorological Society, Boston, 444-445.
King,JC; Anderson,PS (1994): Heat and water vapour fluxes and scalar roughness lengths over an Antarctic ice shelf. Bound.-Layer Meteorol. 69, 101-121.
King,JC; Anderson,PS; Smith,MC; Mobbs,SD (1996): The surface energy and mass balance at Halley, Antarctica during winter. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 19119-19128.
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