Meteorological data from Storglaciären, Kebnekaise mountains, northern Sweden

Tarfala Research Station staff

This dataset contains meteorological data collected by an Automated Weather Station (AWS) at Storglaciären, positioned directly at the glacier surface, and with sensors mounted at heights between c. 0.5 and 2 m above the ice surface (with variations over time).

Storglaciären is one of Sweden’s four so-called reference glaciers (glaciers for which more than 30 years of continuous mass balance measurements are available) included in the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) database. The surface mass balance series for Storglaciären is also the World’s longest detailed one.

The AWS on Storglaciären was installed in 2012, and data for the years 2012-2020 are published at the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES)’s Data Portal. Here, the initial record is updated with data from the years 2022⁠–2026. No data is available for the year 2021. Future updates will be appended to this dataset. Over a year, data gaps are to be expected due to occasionally extreme conditions at the data acquisition site.

TerrestrialGlaciersMeteorologyStorglaciärenGlacierTarfala

Name

Version

Citation

References

WGMS. Fluctuations of Glaciers Database. World Glacier Monitoring Service, Zurich, Switzerland (2024). https://doi.org/10.5904/wgms-fog-2024-01

Tarfala Research Station staff (2025) Glacier surface mass balance for Storglaciären, Northern Sweden. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/tarfala-storglaciaren-surface-mass-balance

Data description

The dataset consists of thirteen csv files, named as CC_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_YYYY-MM-DD_YYYY-MM-DD.csv where CC (= 01, 02, 03 up to 13) is a counter, followed by the name of the dataset, and the time period (YYYY-MM-DD_YYYY-MM-DD) during which measurements were acquired. The following files are included:

• 01_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2013-04-17_2013-09-12.csv 14194 records (15 min resolution), previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 02_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2014-04-09_2014-09-13.csv 15050 records (15 min resolution), previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 03_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2015-04-18_2015-09-08.csv 20602 records (10 min resolution), previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 04_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2016-04-13_2016-09-15.csv 22318 records (10 min resolution), previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 05_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2017-05-21_2017-09-14.csv 16696 records (10 min resolution), previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 06_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology-2018-05-23_2018-09-12.csv 16103 records (10 min resolution), previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 07_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2019-04-28_2019-09-10.csv 19444 records (10 min resolution) previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 08_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2020-05-10_2020-09-13.csv, 18137 records (10 min resolution) previously published at data.fieldsites.se/portal/
• 09_tarfala_storglaciaren-meteorology-2022-04-22_2022-09-08.csv 19900 records (10 minute resolution)
• 10_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2023-04-02-2023-09-11.csv 23386 records (10 minute resolution)
• 11_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2024-03-07_2024-09-14.csv 27562 records (10 minute resolution)
• 12_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2025-08-14_2025-09-10.csv 3846 records (10 minute resolution)
• 13_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_2026-03-12_2026-09-06.csv 25614 records (10 minute resolution)

The individual datafiles contain values for the following meteorological variables collected at Storglaciären, geographical location: N 7536443, E 650030 (SWEREF99 TM coordinate system) or 67.903484 N, 18.575605 E (WGS84), elevation c. 1530 m above sea level:

• TIMESTAMP Date and time stamp (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm) (in UTC+1).
• AirT05_Avg Average air temperature (°C), 10 minute or 15 minute arithmetic mean of measurements conducted once per minute at c. 0.5 m above the ice surface. Measured by a HygroClip 2S3 in a Solar Radiation Shield.
• AirT1_Avg Average air temperature (°C), as previous but measured at c. 1.0 m above the ice surface.
• AirT2_Avg Average air temperature (°C), as previous but measured at c. 2.0 m above the ice surface.
• RH05 Relative humidity of air (%). Measured by a HygroClip 2S3 in a Solar Radiation Shield at c. 0.5m above the ice surface. Transient measurement at output interval.
• RH1 Relative humidity of air (%), as previous but measured at c. 1.0 m above the ice surface.
• RH2 Relative humidity of air (%), as previous but measured at c. 2.0 m above the ice surface.
• SWin_Avg Incoming shortwave radiation (W/m²). Measured by a Hukseflux NR01 net radiometer (2013-2020) and a Campbell Scientific CS300 (2022-2025). Measured once per minute at c. 2m above the ice surface. Arithmetic mean of all readings within output interval.
• SWout_Avg Reflected shortwave radiation (W/m²), measured as previous.
• LWin_Avg Incoming longwave radiation (W/m²), measured as previous.
• LWout_Avg Reflected longwave radiation (W/m²), measured as previous.
• WSpeed Wind speed (m/s). Measured by a Young Wind Monitor 05103-5 at c. 2m above the ice surface. Measured every ten seconds. Arithmetic mean of all readings within output interval.
• WDir Wind direction (degrees from Geographic North 0-360°), measured by a Young Wind Monitor 05103-5 at c. 2m above the ice surface. Measured every ten seconds. Vector average of all readings within output interval.
• WSpeed_Std Standard deviation of WSpeed within output interval.
• WDir_Std Standard deviation of WDir within output interval.
• WSpeed_Max Maximum of WSpeed within output interval.
• WSpeed_Min Minimum of WSpeed within output interval.
• Rain_Tot Liquid precipitation (mm), measured by a Young Tipping bucket 52203 c. 2m above the surface. Sum of readings within output interval.

Comments

Meteorological variables reported here are: air temperature, relative humidity, short- and long-wave radiation, wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, as well as variables derived from these (such as wind speed maximum, for instance). Note that due to failure of sensors and/or batteries, not all variables are recorded at all times. Also, the frequency of measurement acquisition (e.g. values reported every 10 minutes, or every 15 minutes) can differ for different time periods. Since 2025, no measurements of air temperature and relative humidity are made at 0.5 m and 1m above the ice surface.

Associated data

• Glacier surface mass balance for Storglaciären, Northern Sweden
• SITES Data Portal

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

nina.kirchner@su.se

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 > Cryosphere > Glaciers/ice sheets

GCMD location

Continent > Europe > Northern Europe > Scandinavia > Sweden

Dataset language

English

Begin date

2013-04-17

End date

2026-09-06

DOI

Time

Versions

• 3 2026-09-16T13:10:05.821+00:00
• 2 2025-09-15T13:01:25.674+00:00
• 1 2025-09-03T07:58:52.884+00:00
• 1 2025-08-08T09:47:13.24+00:00