CRYONET Site Questionnaire
Site specific metadata:
Name of site: Dome C (Antarctica)
Latitude/Longitude/Altitude: (75°06' S, 123°20' E, 3233 m a.s.l.
Landscape type (e.g. arctic coastal, tundra, alpine…):
High Antarctic plateau, snow
Onsite technical staff: Yes, limited
All-year round observations y/n: Y
Year established: 2004
Link to website if available:
Radiation: http://www.bsrn.awi.de/
Surface mass balance: http://www-lgge.ujf-grenoble.fr/ServiceObs/SiteWebAntarc/glacioclimsamba.php
Meteorology: http://lgge.osug.fr/~christo/calva/home.shtml , www.climantartide.it
Station manager (Email):
Christophe genthon (genthon@lgge.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr) (meteorological profiling, mass balance)
Paolo Grigioni (paolo.grigioni@enea.it)
(routine meteorological observations including radiosondes)
v.vitale@isac.cnr.it (radiation)
Organisation in charge of station:
Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, France
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development (ENEA) ,
Italy
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (ISAC-CNR) , Italy
Other information
Station logistics by Institut Polaire Francais Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV, http://www.IPEV.fr) and Italian
National Antarctic Programme (PNRA).
Monitoring of the atmosphere:
Solid precipitation:
Automatic recording of precipitating ice images; automatic sizing and shape
characterization of falling crystals
(http://lidarmax.altervista.org/englidar/_Antarctic%20Precipitation.php) (Massimo Del Guasta IFACCNR - m.delguasta@ifac.cnr.it )
Snowfall:
Trace gases: ozone surface concentration; planned yet installation of DOAS spectrometer
Aerosols: On the vertical column - AOT with sun-photometers. at surface - size distribution, absorption
coefficient, and chemical characterization (IC) of PM10 (1 and 3 days resolution), size-segregated
particulate (>10, 10-2.5, 2.5-1.0, < 1.0 um – 3 day resolution) and EC-OC (15 days resolution).
UV, stratospheric ozone: through band radiometers (UV-RAD and SAOZ). In the near-future with DOAS
spectrometer also.
Radiation (longwave, shortwave): YES, Baseline Surface Radiation Network downwelling and upwelling
fluxes
Others: Lidar measurements to investigate cloud microphysics, structure, and diamond dust
precipitation. Aerosols below the detection limit
Radiation (longwave, shortwave):
Others: Daily radiosonde since March 2005, surface automatic weather, tower meteorological profiling,
see details in Icesheet section
Snow cover
Physical parameters:
Chemical parameters:
Others:
Glaciers and ice caps
Mass balance (measured parameters):
Ice flow (measured parameters):
Basal water pressure (measured parameters):
Others:
Sea ice
Mass balance (measured parameters):
Meteorology: radiation, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure (measured
parameters):
Snow on ice (measured parameters):
Ice chemistry (measured parameters):
Others:
Permafrost
Borehole measurements (measured parameters):
Meteorology: radiation, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure (measured
parameters):
Snow on ground (measured parameters):
Active layer thickness (measured parameters):
GST:
Others:
Ice sheet
Mass balance (measured parameters): Annual accumulation on 3 stakes networks, annual, + ~monthly in
summer at one network
Meteorology: radiation, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure (measured
parameters):
Radiation: Baseline Surface Radiation Network site (broadband shortwave and longwave downwelling
fluxes and shortwave components since 2006, broadband upwelling fluxes measured at 3 m and 30 m
height, since 2007)
Temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, pressure at several surface automatic weather
stations
Temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction at 6 levels on a 45-m tower
Snow on ice (measured parameters):
Snow Temperature measured at different depth in the 0-10 m range- continuously
Snow density measured in the first meter (once per week)
Snow deposition (twice per week)
Snow grains size (at surface level) - (twice per week)
Morphological characterization of ice and snow crystals.
Ion composition (inorganic anions and cations, some selected organic anions) of superficial snow.
Sampling of one (winter) or two (summer) samples per day all year round.
broadband albedo (since 2007)
Automatic recording of hemispheric surface images from 3 m height (since 2011 - every 10 minutes)
Ice chemistry (measured parameters): Ion Chromatographic measurements on firn and ice core drilled
around DC
Others:
Other measurements (hydrological, ecological, oceanographic, etc)
Hydrology (measured parameters):
Ecology (measured parameters)
Oceanography (measured parameters):
Other thematic linkages:
Linkages to satellite data (describe validation programs, applications of satellite data, etc.)
High density of overpass for polar orbiting satellites, very homogeneous surface and lack of significant
topography make Concordia on the Dome C a very favourable site for calibration and validation and
other research related to satellite data. Additionally, the Concordia Station, during the austral spring, is
located inside the region where ozone depletion (ozone hole) takes place and therefore ground
measurements performed in this site will be useful to validate the results of space sensors devoted to
monitor the atmospheric composition in the stratosphere. The synergy between Concordia (75°S) and
the coastal Italian and French stations of Mario Zucchelli (74°S) and Dumont D’Urville (66°S) can increase
the potential of cal/val activities for missions devoted to investigate atmospheric composition and
processes, especially through the comparison of two different regimes/conditions with the same
observing geometry in the case of Concordia and Mario Zucchelli stations.
In recent years several projects have been carried out in support of the calibration and validation
activities of satellite missions using the Dome C area as reference target. Several of them use satellite
data collected by SPOT (Six et al. 2004), AIRS (Walden et al. 2006) , MODIS (Wenny and Xiong 2008),
AMSU (Mo 2011), IASI (Rabier et al. 2010) and confirm the potential of the site for this specific purpose.
In addition to these projects, which use satellite data only, a few additional pilot projects dealt with field
measurements at Concordia. Among them is that conducted by the University of Washington in
cooperation with LGGE which includes the measurements of the bidirectional reflectance distribution
function (BRDF) in the wavelengths range 350–2400 nm, the experiment DOMEX conducted by IFAC-CNR
in cooperation with ESA in support to the SMOS mission which includes an L-band microwave radiometer
(Macelloni et al. 2005) and the validation of thermal infrared sounder and imager (Brun et al. 2011).
Future activities are planned as for example the DOMEX-3 follow-on experiment (which will be
supported by ESA) and an experiment conducted by a team of European research institutes to produce a
comprehensive characterization of the bi-directional properties of snow/ice spectral reflectance using a
gonio-hyperspectral radiometer system. Furthermore other developments are expected using the
potentiality of current ground based year-round measurements (radiometric, active passive remote
sensing, etc.) and their planned extension.
Participation in international monitoring programmes such as GAW, GTN-G, GTN-P, ….
Baseline Surface Radiation Network