PRIC-CCAA Kunlun Automatic Weather Station
PRIC-CCAA Kunlun Automatic Weather Station (KL-AWS) has a tower of 15m high. At different heights, there are 9 temperature sensors (-1m, 0m 1m, 2m, 4m, 6m, 9.5m, 12m and14.5m), 4 wind speed and direction measurements (2m, 4m, 9.5m and 14.5m) and one pressure measurement (1m). Temperature is measured with Young 4-wire RTD (Model 41342). Wind speed and direction is measured with 2D sonic anemometers (Young Model 85000), and propeller anemometers (Young Wind Monitor-AQ model 05305V). The sonic anemometers are not currently working.
Uncertainty on all temperature measurements is 0.32 Degrees Celcius, wind speed error is 0.2m/s, direction error is 0.5 degree (plus installation offset), pressure error is 1.5kPa.
The KL-AWS of PRIC-CCAA was a collaborative project among Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC), Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy (CCAA) and University of New South Wales (UNSW). It was funded by National Astronomical Observatories, CAS (NAOC), designed and built by Colin Bonner and Michael Ashley at UNSW, and installed at Kunlun Station in January 2010 by the Chinese traverse team of The 27th Chinese Antarctic Research Expedition. Based on collaborations, the KL-AWS is connected to PLATO and its data are transferred back in real-time via Iridium satellite access funded by US NSF.
