A Two-Year Record of the Climate on the Greenland Crest from an Automatic Weather Station,

An automatic weather station AWS was installed on the Greenland Summit 72.30 N, 38.00 W, 3210 m in May 1987. The AWS unit operated for two years until May 1989 when it was moved to Fresh Air Site 72.82 N, 38.82 W, 3185 m, an air sampling site, where it is still operating. The AWS data were transmitted to the ARGOS data collection system on the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites. The AWS unit measures wind speed and direction, air temperature, and the relative humidity at a nominal height of 3 m, air pressure at the height of the electronics enclosure, and the vertical air temperature difference between 3.0 and 0.5 m. The latent and sensible heat from the snow surface to the air were estimated using the wind speed, vertical air temperature difference, and the relative humidity. The data are compared with those from two earlier stations, Eismitte 70.90 N, 40.70 W, 3000 m from September 1930 through August 1931 Wegeners expedition and Station Centrale 70.92 N, 40.64 W, 2993 m from September 1949 through August 1951 Victors expedition. The winds observed at Cathy Site were quite similar to those observed at the two previous stations. Also, the large fluctuations in temperature observed during the winter months at the two historic stations were observed at Cathy Site. The transition from positive to negative values for the sensible and latent heat flux occurred in October.