At each of the ice coring sites, the instruments will record hourly temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and snow accumulation (distance to snow surface at two locations) year round. The Sajama station was installed in October, 1996 and will run for the duration of the project (3-4 years). Installation of the additional station will occur during May or June of 1997. This will provide a reasonably long modern data set to be compared with detailed geochemistry from snow pits excavated close to each station as well as the uppermost ice core stratigraphy. We also plan to develop a data base of longer-term weather station data (both surface and upper air) from the Altiplano and adjacent regions, which will be useful in placing the observed record in a longer term perspective, as well as providing evidence of recent variations in climate.
Data are being transmitted to the GOES East satellite and down-loaded in near real-time to the Climatology Laboratory at the University of Massachusetts for processing. In addition, we will have solid-state recording modules installed at each site to provide continuous data storage back-up. Data summaries will be prepared weekly to identify any problems with the instruments and recording system to optimise both data recovery rates and data quality.
Data acquired from Sajama and Illimani Ice Caps will be compared with the longer high elevation meteorological records acquired from Quelccaya and Huascaran, Peru over the last decade, as well as with short-term ORSTOM station data, to try to develop a comprehensive view of climatic conditions in these remote tropical, high alpine areas.
Meteorological data analysis will be closely tied to the results of annual snow pit studies carried out in the vicinity of the automatic weather stations at the end of each accumulation season. It will be important to identify snow accumulation layers in the pits in relation to measured snow depth changes (recorded by the acoustic snow depth sensors) at each station. The different accumulation layers in the snow pits will be sampled in detail (for oxygen isotope ratios, microparticles and major ions) enabling the episodes of snowfall to be characterised in terms of precipitation geochemistry. The prevailing meteorological conditions (particularly airflow) associated with precipitation events will provide valuable insight into the interpretation of down-core geochemical variations. We also plan to collaborate with ORSTOM and Bolivian officials to obtain precipitation samples over a wider geographical area, for oxygen isotopic analysis on an event basis, to further assist in the interpretation of this parameter in the ice cores.
