Meteorological regime of the Elbrus high-mountain zone during the accumulation period

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Názov: Meteorological regime of the Elbrus high-mountain zone during the accumulation period
Autori: E. D. Drozdov, P. A. Toropov, V. K. Avilov, A. Yu. Artamonov, A. A. Polyukhov, I. V. Zheleznova, Yu. I. Yarinich
Zdroj: Лëд и снег, Vol 64, Iss 1, Pp 25-40 (2024)
Informácie o vydavateľovi: The Russian Academy of Sciences, 2024.
Rok vydania: 2024
Predmety: high-mountain meteorological observations, Science, elbrus climate, 0207 environmental engineering, era5 reanalysis, 02 engineering and technology, flowcapt driftometer, garabashi glacier, 01 natural sciences, mountain meteorology, 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Popis: Unique automated meteorological observations were carried out on the southern slope of Elbrus, near Pastukhov Rocks, at 4700 m a.s.l., during the 2021–2022 accumulation season. Data were obtained on air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, snowdrift and radiation fluxes with a temporal resolution of 1 minute or less. Analysis of the data series showed that the representative winter air temperature at this altitude on the southern slope of Elbrus is –10 °С, and the minimum is –36.4 °С; the partial pressure of water vapor does not exceed 3.5 hPa. At the same time, the average daily maximum of wind speed amounted 13.1 m s–1 with the absolute maximum of 54.1 m/s. Snowstorms with a snow transport intensity of more 0.1 kg/m2s–1 are quite common phenomenon in winter, while the maximum average value of the transport reaches 0.87 kg/m2s–1. An empirical relationship was established between the average hourly wind speed and the maximum gust speed for the same period, and it was shown that for these conditions the wind gust exceeds the average hourly wind speed by 1.8 times, while the representative value of the standard deviation of wind speed is 5.8 m s–1. This information may be useful not only for the glaciologic problems and modeling, but also for construction and engineering surveys, which are relevant in view of the present-day active development of the mountain ski infrastructure on the southern macro-slope of the Elbrus. In addition, the obtained series of instrumental observations were used to assess the quality of reanalysis data for high mountain regions taking as an example the ERA5. The ERA5 reanalysis was demonstrated to reproduce rather successfully the air temperature, wind speed and humidity in high mountain conditions, but extreme values for all these parameters are underestimated. Thus, the minimum temperature in winter turned out to be overestimated by 2 °C, and the maximum was underestimated by 4 °C, while the wind speed, according to the ERA5 reanalysis, never exceeded 40 m/s during the above observation period. It is also shown that the FlowCapt4 acoustic blizzard gauge (driftometer) can be used to estimate average wind speeds since it is less sensitive to severe high-altitude conditions compared to acoustic and cup anemometers.
Druh dokumentu: Article
ISSN: 2412-3765
2076-6734
DOI: 10.31857/s2076673424010022
DOI: 10.1134/s0001433824701196
Prístupová URL adresa: https://doaj.org/article/9fd754fe959248018c0ad840a7e85c29
Rights: Springer Nature TDM
Prístupové číslo: edsair.doi.dedup.....e0842b32e27f52565115940b4464bfa8
Databáza: OpenAIRE
Popis
Abstrakt:Unique automated meteorological observations were carried out on the southern slope of Elbrus, near Pastukhov Rocks, at 4700 m a.s.l., during the 2021–2022 accumulation season. Data were obtained on air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, snowdrift and radiation fluxes with a temporal resolution of 1 minute or less. Analysis of the data series showed that the representative winter air temperature at this altitude on the southern slope of Elbrus is –10 °С, and the minimum is –36.4 °С; the partial pressure of water vapor does not exceed 3.5 hPa. At the same time, the average daily maximum of wind speed amounted 13.1 m s–1 with the absolute maximum of 54.1 m/s. Snowstorms with a snow transport intensity of more 0.1 kg/m2s–1 are quite common phenomenon in winter, while the maximum average value of the transport reaches 0.87 kg/m2s–1. An empirical relationship was established between the average hourly wind speed and the maximum gust speed for the same period, and it was shown that for these conditions the wind gust exceeds the average hourly wind speed by 1.8 times, while the representative value of the standard deviation of wind speed is 5.8 m s–1. This information may be useful not only for the glaciologic problems and modeling, but also for construction and engineering surveys, which are relevant in view of the present-day active development of the mountain ski infrastructure on the southern macro-slope of the Elbrus. In addition, the obtained series of instrumental observations were used to assess the quality of reanalysis data for high mountain regions taking as an example the ERA5. The ERA5 reanalysis was demonstrated to reproduce rather successfully the air temperature, wind speed and humidity in high mountain conditions, but extreme values for all these parameters are underestimated. Thus, the minimum temperature in winter turned out to be overestimated by 2 °C, and the maximum was underestimated by 4 °C, while the wind speed, according to the ERA5 reanalysis, never exceeded 40 m/s during the above observation period. It is also shown that the FlowCapt4 acoustic blizzard gauge (driftometer) can be used to estimate average wind speeds since it is less sensitive to severe high-altitude conditions compared to acoustic and cup anemometers.
ISSN:24123765
20766734
DOI:10.31857/s2076673424010022