Daily precipitation from Tarfala Research Station, Kebnekaise mountains, northern Sweden
Tarfala Research Station staff
This dataset contains daily liquid precipitation (rain) from Tarfala Research Station, acquired since 1980 and updated annually.
Tarfala Research Station (TRS), located at 1135 m a.s.l. in the Tarfala valley, Kebnekaise mountains, northern Sweden, is Stockholm University’s centre for glaciological and alpine research. Here, meteorological observations have been carried out regularly since the first glaciological field campaign to the Tarfala valley in May 1946, already before TRS was inaugurated in 1961. These data provide important climatological information in itself and also give context for a wide range of other climate system components in the Tarfala valley, such as glaciers, streams, permafrost, etc., and their dynamic change over time.
The dataset presented here is compiled from some previously published separate datasets containing data for the periods 1980 – 2011 (except for the year 1997 for which data is missing completely), and 2015 – 2020. The current version is updated with previously unpublished data from 2012 – 2014, as well as 2021 – 2024.
AtmospherePrecipitationPrecipitationTarfala
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Citation
References
Dahlke HE, Lyon SW, Stedinger JR, Rosqvist G, Jansson P (2012) Contrasting trends in floods for two sub-arctic catchments in northern Sweden – does glacier presence matter? Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 16:2123–2141. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-16-2123-2012
Grudd, H (ed) (1992) Annual Report, Tarfala Research Station. Stockholms universitet, Naturgeografiska institutionen, ISSN 0346-7406.
Tarfala Research Station staff (2012) Data from Tarfala Research Station, Kebnekaise mountains, northern Sweden. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/tarfala-1
Data description
The dataset is provided as two comma-separated values (csv) files. Both files contain the same information, but presented in different forms:
Table form
The data file tarfala-daily-precipitation-table.csv provides the daily precipitation in the form of a table with 46 columns and 368 rows. The first and second row, as well as the first column, contain auxiliary information:
Row 1 indicates, in each cell heading a column, the data source for data presented in the column, using the following digits:
1= from Dahlke_Tarfala_Daily_PRECIP_1980-2011.txt, under section Climate in Data from Tarfala Research Station, Kebnekaise Mountains, Northern Sweden (version 1] by Tarfala Research Station staff (2012), unmodified (exception: -999 was replaced by NaN)
2= from Dahlke_Tarfala_Daily_PRECIP_1980-2011.txt, under section Climate in Data from Tarfala Research Station, Kebnekaise Mountains, Northern Sweden (version 1] by Tarfala Research Station staff (2012), with updates from archival data from TarMet (see Comments below)
3= data from TRS-AWS (see Comments below), previously unpublished
4= data measured with TRS-AWS, published at SITES Data Portal
For 2, the updates concern the following periods:
- 21 April to 2 May, and 22 July to 3 September 2002
- 13 April, and 3 August to 31 December 2003
- 17 September to 31 December 2010
Column 1 provides a counter of the days of a year (Julian format): 1-365 for non-leap years, and 1-366 for leap years.
Row 2 contains the years for which the data is provided per column, starting with 1980 and ending with 2024.
Daily precipitation data (in mm) is listed in the as one column per year, for instance, 1980: column 2, rows 3-368 (leap year). Missing values are indicated by NaN.
Time series form
The data file tarfala-daily-precipitation-vector.csv provides the daily precipitation in the form of a time series vector. The file has three columns:
Column 1: Date (yyy-mm-dd) Column 2: Precipitation (in mm) Column 3: Data source identifier (digit 1,2,3,4, see above).
Missing values are indicated by NaN.
Comments
Prior to 1987, no specific documentation regarding the device used for liquid precipitation data collection is available. In 1987, the first digital logger based automated weather station (TarMet) was established and operated until 2013 when it was replaced by a more modern equivalent (referred to as TRS-AWS). At TarMet and TRS-AWS, daily precipitation was/is recorded at 10-minute intervals using a tipping bucket precipitation gauge mounted at a height of c. 2 meters above ground. For the period 1980 to 2016, the data from TarMet and TRS-AWS was stored at the Department of Physical Geography at Stockholm University. For the years 2015-2020, it was stored in the SITES Data Portal. Since 2021, it is stored at TRS.
Data was retrieved from these sources and aggregated into daily total sums.
In 2012, the original precipitation gauge was destroyed on May 25. It was replaced in early July with a new Young tipping bucket gauge. The original gauge was calibrated to measure 0.16 mm of precipitation per pulse (tip), while the new gauge was designed for a calibration of 0.1 mm per pulse. However, the Young tipping bucket operated with the old calibration of 0.16 mm per pulse until approximately July 5, 2013 , when the system was updated to reflect the correct calibration of 0.1 mm per pulse.
Scientific highlight: The dataset reveals 536 extreme precipitation events, defined as days with precipitation exceeding the 95th percentile threshold of 12.80 mm. The top 3 extreme events are as follows: 1991-09-03 (101.4 mm), 2012-07-14 (94.7 mm), and 2010-05-25 (85.0 mm). The extreme event in 1991 is mentioned in TRS Annual Report (Grudd, H. (Ed.), 1992).
Project
Base program of Tarfala Research Station
Publisher
Bolin Centre Database
License
Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0
First name
Nina
Last name or organisation
Kirchner
Email address
Address
Tarfala Research Station and Department of Physical Geography; Stockholm University
Postal code
SE-106 91
City
Stockholm
Country
Sweden
GCMD science keyword
Earth science > Atmosphere > Precipitation > Precipitation amount > 24 hour precipitation amount
GCMD location
Continent > Europe > Northern Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden
Dataset language
English
Begin date
1980-01-01
End date
2024-12-31