Meteorological Data for the Astronomical Site at Dome A, Antarctica

Abstract

We present an analysis of the meteorological data collected at Dome A,\nAntarctica by the Kunlun Automated Weather Station, including temperatures and\nwind speeds at eight elevations above the snow surface between 0m and 14.5m.\nThe average temperatures at 2m and 14.5m are $-54^{\\circ}$C and $-46^{\\circ}$C,\nrespectively. We find that a strong temperature inversion existed at all\nheights for more than 70% of the time, and the temperature inversion typically\nlasts longer than 25 hours, indicating an extremely stable atmosphere. The\ntemperature gradient is larger at lower elevations than higher elevations. The\naverage wind speed was 1.5m/s at 4m elevation. We find that the temperature\ninversion is stronger when the wind speed is lower and the temperature gradient\ndecreases sharply at a specific wind speed for each elevation. The strong\ntemperature inversion and low wind speed results in a shallow and stable\nboundary layer with weak atmospheric turbulence above it, suggesting that Dome\nA should be an excellent site for astronomical observations. All the data from\nthe weather station are available for download.\n