Identification

Title

Meteorological Data from BGS Virkisjökull-Falljökull Glacier Observatory, 2009-2020

Abstract

This dataset presents meteorological records from 3 weather stations around a glacier in southeast Iceland from 2009-2020. The weather stations were installed as part of British Geological Survey’s Glacier Observatory project, and were positioned at different altitudes close to the ice to record glacier weather. The data is in text format, and records key meteorological parameters including temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar irradiance. The weather stations were placed around Virkisjökull-Falljökull, an outlet glacier of the Öraefajökull ice cap in south east Iceland (AWS1 at 16°48'19"W, 63°57'53"N; AWS3 at 16°47'5"W, 63°58'13"N, and AWS4 at 16°48'7"W , 63°59'52"N). AWS1 was installed in September 2009, with AWS3 installed in September 2010, and AWS4 in September 2011. AWS3 and AWS4 were decommissioned in August 2018, and AWS1 in May 2020. AWS1 was located 100m from the current glacier margin at 156m a.s.l.; AWS3 sat 50m from the icefall at 444m a.s.l.; and AWS4 was situated on a clifftop overlooking the glacier at 858m a.s.l., close to the Equilibrium Line Altitude of the glacier. These were positioned at different altitudes to determine changes in weather parameters with height, thus producing for example, temperature or humidity gradients. The three stations were wirelessly linked, allowing data from the upper stations to be offloaded to the datalogger on the lower station. On-site downloads were completed using Campbell Scientific LoggerNet 4.x series software. AWS1 maintained mobile phone telemetry enabling automatic remote downloads of data from all stations on a daily basis, and remote access for software updates and health checks. Each AWS supported a slightly different sensor array, depending on the requirements of the site, and were mounted on 1.5m Campbell Scientific tripods. All of the stations were designed around a Campbell Scientific CR800 datalogger, and were solar powered, using combinations of PV panels up to 100W, supplying a Campbell Scientific 25Ah battery mounted on the tripod, plus a 110Ah gel cell battery back up in a separate housing. The data will be of use to researchers and students interested in the weather of southeast Iceland, glacier climate, local influence of glaciers on more regional synoptic weather systems, glacier climate modellers, glacier hydrologists and hydrogeologists. The BGS project was led and coordinated by Dr Jez Everest, technical support and implementation by Heiko Buxel and data Quality Assurance and checking by Dr Jon Mackay. Any periods where equipment malfunction, testing or replacement meant that no or unreliable data were collected are indicated by a ‘NAN’ value in the datasets.

Resource type

dataset

Resource locator

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/services/ngdc/accessions/index.html#item137325

name: Data

function: download

https://doi.org/10.5285/72f0d514-365a-45c9-9d54-3cb0b9fc71fc

name: Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

function: information

Unique resource identifier

code

http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13607659

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

originating controlled vocabulary

title

GEMET - INSPIRE themes

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Keyword set

keyword value

Weather

Observatories

Meteorological stations

Meteorology

originating controlled vocabulary

title

BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2011

Keyword set

keyword value

NERC_DDC

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

-16.8000

East bounding longitude

-16.7800

North bounding latitude

63.9900

South bounding latitude

63.9600

Extent

Extent group

authority code

title

British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus

reference date

date type

creation

effective date

1979

code identifying the extent

ICELAND [id=903000]

Extent group

authority code

title

ISO 3166_1 alpha-2

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2009

code identifying the extent

IS

Extent group

authority code

title

ISO 3166_1 alpha-3

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2009

code identifying the extent

ISL

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

2009-09-07

End position

2020-05-18

Dataset reference date

date type

creation

effective date

2020-08-24

Frequency of update

notPlanned

Quality and validity

Lineage

The study operated three automated weather stations: AWS1 located 100m from the current glacier margin at 156m a.s.l. AWS3 50m from the icefall at 444m a.s.l. AWS4 situated on a clifftop overlooking the glacier at 858m a.s.l., close to the Equilibrium Line Altitude of the glacier.These were positioned at different altitudes to determine changes in weather parameters with height, thus producing eg, temperature or humidity gradients. All stations were wirelessly linked. On-site downloads were completed using Campbell Scientific LoggerNet 4.x series software. AWS1 maintained mobile phone telemetry enabling automatic remote downloads of data from all stations on a regular basis, and remote access for software updates and health checks. The stations were mounted on 1.5m Campbell Scientific tripods and used a Campbell Scientific CR800 datalogger. All AWS were solar powered.

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

INSPIRE Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and harmonisation of Geology

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2011

degree

false

explanation

See the referenced specification

Conformity report

specification

title

Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

false

explanation

See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF

Data format

name of format

TXT files

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

Biological and Environmental Sciences

organisation name

University of Stirling

full postal address

Stirling

FK9 4LA

email address

not available

responsible party role

originator

Responsible party

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South

EDINBURGH

EH14 4AP

United Kingdom

telephone number

0115 936 3142

facsimile number

0115 936 3276

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

distributor

Responsible party

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South

EDINBURGH

EH14 4AP

United Kingdom

telephone number

0115 936 3142

facsimile number

0115 936 3276

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

originator

Responsible party

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South

EDINBURGH

EH14 4AP

United Kingdom

telephone number

0115 936 3142

facsimile number

0115 936 3276

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Responsible party

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth

NOTTINGHAM

NG12 5GG

United Kingdom

telephone number

0115 936 3143

facsimile number

0115 936 3276

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

distributor

Responsible party

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

Environmental Science Centre, Nicker Hill, Keyworth

NOTTINGHAM

NG12 5GG

United Kingdom

telephone number

0115 936 3143

facsimile number

0115 936 3276

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

originator

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South

EDINBURGH

EH14 4AP

United Kingdom

telephone number

+44 131 667 1000

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2023-03-15

Metadata language

eng