Automatic Weather Station Kleinfleißkees

The Automatic Weather Station (AWS) was built up in January 2011 on Kleinfleißkees/Sonnbick. The following measurements were recorded on this site: air temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, snow height and radiation balance between incoming short-wave and long-wave versus surface reflected short-wave and outgoing long-wave radiation.
The data is collected with a solar powered datalogger and stored to a CF-card every 10 minutes. The radiation measurements are stored every minute. The data is collected automatically to a database.
In the beginning the mast was drilled into the ice but it turned out to be problematic especially during melt season in summer. In July 2015 the AWS was set as a “floating” station on a quadpod standing on the ice.
Since August 2016 an automatic ablation sensor was added to the station.
The maintenance of the AWS is more complex due to the snow depth during winter. In some years a snow depth over 5 m is measured at the station. The mast has to be extended that the instruments and the solar panel are kept over the snow surface. But when the snow is almost molten the mast has to be short enough not to break or to prevent the station from turning over.

The end of a working day after lowering the station