Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent. Since moving camp to Conrow Glacier I’ve finally got to experience the winds. When first setting up camp we had a hard time putting up the Scott tent because the wind was so strong it kept blowing the tent out of our hands. The day after setting up camp we went out to set up a meteorological (met) station so it could record data for the two weeks we are at Conrow Glacier.
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Kate next to our met station once we finished setting everything up. Anemometers are the black instruments at the end of the metal arms. |
Our met station was 10 feet (~3 meters) high and had four anemometers for measuring wind speed at different heights above the ground, a sensor for measuring temperature and solar radiation. Measuring solar radiation, or sunlight, lets us know how sunny or cloudy it is on a given day. The anemometers showed that the maximum wind speed was approximately 32 mph, with a daily average of 20 to 25 mph. Temperature measurements give an average of -6° Celcius, meaning that it was relatively warm here at Conrow Glacier. Most days the wind came from the coast, but for a few days there was a wind coming from down valley, originating from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. There have even been a few days where the wind is coming from Conrow Glacier. East, south and west!
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