Author:

Keywords:

Antarctica, boundary-layer meteorology, snowdrift, sublimation, automatic weather stations

Abstract:

In the near-coastal regions of Antarctica, a significant fraction of the snow precipitating onto the surface, is removed again through sublimation – the direct conversion of solid snow particles into water vapour– either directly from the surface or of the drifting snow particles. Meteorological observations from an Automatic Weather Station (AWS) near the Belgian research station Princess Elisabeth (PE) in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, are used to study surface and snowdrift sublimation and to assess their impacts on both the surface mass balance and the surface energy balance. The results for PE are each time compared to three other AWSs in Dronning Maud Land for which longer datasets are available.