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.
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 (linked below) 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 2022-2024. 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.
TerrestrialGlaciersMeteorology, Storglaciären, Glacier
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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 eleven .csv files, named as CC_tarfala-storglaciaren-meteorology_YYYY-MM-DD_YYYY-MM-DD.csv where CC (= 01, 02, 03 up to 11) 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)
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 (2022-2024). 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.
Project
Base program of Tarfala Research Station
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 Dept. of Physical Geography, Stockholm University
Postal code
10691
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
2024-09-17