Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) Data

In Memory of Dr. Konrad (Koni) Steffen

Update October 2022: The GC-Net is kindly continued by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS). Starting October 3, 2022, the access to the latest versions of the "ready to use" L1 data has been migrated to GEUS. Future data versions will be available at: https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/VVXGUT

Background

Starting with a single station in 1991, the Greenland Climate Network (commonly known as GC-Net) is a set of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) set up and managed by the late Prof. Dr. Konrad (Koni) Steffen, and spanning the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). This first station was "Swiss Camp" or the "ETH-CU" camp (GC-Net station #01) which was used as a field science and education site by Koni for years. The GC-Net was expanded with multiple NASA, NOAA, and NSF grants throughout the years, and then supported by WSL in the later years. These data (see "C-file" below) were previously hosted by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado.

Overview

Provided in this dataset are the 16 longest running stations in the network, which are spread over a significant area of the GrIS and the majority of the unique climatic zones. From the South Dome high point in the South, to the Western Jakobshavn ablation region in the west, to the Petermann glacier in the North across east of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream to the east, GC-Net is the longest running climatological record of Greenland.

The standard GC-Net station consists of:

  • Air temperature measurements at 2 heights above the surface
  • Temperature and humidity measurements at 2 heights above the surface
  • Wind speed and direction measured at 2 heights above the surface
  • Sonic distance sounder measurements for 2 snow height and distance of instruments to surface
  • Incoming shortwave radiation measurement
  • Reflected shortwave radiation measurement
  • Net broadband radiation (long- and short-wave) measurement
  • Air pressure measurement

Data have often been repatriated in near-real time using one of either the GOES geostationary satellite or the ARGOS polar orbiting satellite transmission system. The stations were visited typically every 1-2 years for maintenance and service, and to download full uncorrupted data directly from the dataloggers. GC-Net stations were visited by Twin Otter equipped with snow skids to land directly on the open-ice at the AWS locations, or by helicopter near the west coast. The AWSs operate on solar and battery power and occasionally lost power during the dark and cold winter months, particularly when the batteries were aging.

Dataset

This dataset consists of 2 main data levels; Level 0 and Level 1. Level 0 is the raw data from the dataloggers, historical processing codes, satellite transmissions, and Koni’s personal data archive. Level 0 data (.zip) directories contain subdirectories:

  • “C file” - contains the historical processed datafile for each station.

  • “Campbell logger files” - contains the raw csv datafiles from the stations’ Campbell Scientific dataloggers since the CR1000 era (~2007-2008 for most stations).

  • “Photos” - contains photographs of the station when available marked by year.

Level 1 is the appended, calibrated, cleaned, and quality flagged data. The full processing scheme is open-source and publicly available on the following GitHub repository (please also check GitHub for the latest L1 data):

GC-Net L1 data on GitHub

Level 1 data is provided in the newly described csv-compatible NEAD format.

Additional Details

Dataset description publication will be forthcoming. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) has been imperative in the reprocessing and continuity mission of GC-Net. Multiple GC-Net stations have been replaced with updated and upgraded AWS hardware at the same coordinates by GEUS. This effort will ensure continuity of the GC-Net dataset into the future.

Funding Information:

This work was supported by:
  • WSL
  • NOAA
  • NASA

Related Publications

Steffen, K., Huff, N.C.R., Starkweather, S., Albert, T. and McAllister, M., 2003. Variability and forcing of climate parameters on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Greenland climate Network (GC-NET). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Fausto, R.S., van As, D., Mankoff, K.D., Vandecrux, B., Citterio, M., Ahlstrøm, A.P., Andersen, S.B., Colgan, W., Karlsson, N.B., Kjeldsen, K.K. and Korsgaard, N.J., 2021. Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE) automatic weather station data. Earth System Science Data, 13(8), pp.3819-3845. Ionuț Iosifescu Enescu; Mathias Bavay; Kenneth Mankoff (2020). Non-Binary Environmental Archive Data (NEAD) format. EnviDat. doi:

Citation:

Steffen (†), Konrad; Houtz, Derek; Vandecrux, Baptiste; Abdalati, Waleed; Bayou, Nicolas; Box, Jason; Colgan, William; Espona Pernas, Lucia; Griessinger, Nena; Haas-Artho, Dominik; Heilig, Achim; Hubert, Alain; Iosifescu Enescu, Ionuț; Johnson-Amin, Nighat; Karlsson, Nanna B.; Kurup, Rebecca; McGrath, Daniel; Naderpour, Reza; Pederson, Allan Østerby; Perren, Bianca; Phillips, Thomas; Plattner, Gian-Kasper; Proksch, Martin; Revheim, Maiken Kristiansen; Saettele, Martina; Schneebeli, Martin; Sampson, Kevin; Starkweather, Sandy; Steffen, Simon; Stroeve, Julienne; Walter, Benjamin; Winton, Øyvind Andreas; Zwally, Jay (2020). Greenland Climate Network (GC-Net) Data. EnviDat. doi:10.16904/envidat.1.

DataCite ISO 19139 GCMD DIF README.txt BibTex RIS

Data and Resources

Metadata

Field Values
DOI 10.16904/envidat.1
Publication State Published
Authors
  • Email: konrad.steffenfoo(at)wsl.ch Given Name: Konrad Family Name: Steffen (†) Affiliation: WSL Additional Affiliation : ETHZ Additional Affiliation : EPFL DataCRediT: Collection, Validation, Curation, Software, Supervision
  • Email: derek.houtzfoo(at)wsl.ch Given Name: Derek Family Name: Houtz Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Validation, Curation, Software, Publication
  • Email: bavfoo(at)geus.dk ORCID: 0000-0002-4169-8973 Given Name: Baptiste Family Name: Vandecrux Affiliation: GEUS DataCRediT: Validation, Software
  • Email: waleed.abdalatifoo(at)colorado.edu Given Name: Waleed Family Name: Abdalati Affiliation: University of Colorado Additional Affiliation : CIRES DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: bayou_nicolasfoo(at)yahoo.com Given Name: Nicolas Family Name: Bayou Affiliation: UNAVCO DataCRediT: Collection, Validation, Software
  • Email: jebfoo(at)geus.dk Given Name: Jason Family Name: Box Affiliation: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland DataCRediT: Collection, Validation, Curation, Software
  • Email: wicfoo(at)geus.dk Given Name: William Family Name: Colgan Affiliation: Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: lucia.esponafoo(at)wsl.ch ORCID: 0000-0002-1477-6999 Given Name: Lucia Family Name: Espona Pernas Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Software
  • Email: nena.griessingerfoo(at)gmail.com Given Name: Nena Family Name: Griessinger Affiliation: SLF DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: dominik.haasfoo(at)wsl.ch Given Name: Dominik Family Name: Haas-Artho Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Software
  • Email: heiligfoo(at)r-hm.de Given Name: Achim Family Name: Heilig Affiliation: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: alain.hubertfoo(at)polarfoundation.org Given Name: Alain Family Name: Hubert Affiliation: International Polar Foundation (IPF) DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: ionut.iosifescufoo(at)wsl.ch ORCID: 0000-0002-1770-7833 Given Name: Ionuț Family Name: Iosifescu Enescu Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Software, Publication
  • Email: ggfoo(at)polarfoundation.org Given Name: Nighat Family Name: Johnson-Amin Affiliation: International Polar Foundation (IPF) DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: nbkfoo(at)geus.dk Given Name: Nanna B. Family Name: Karlsson Affiliation: GEUS DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: rebecca.kurupfoo(at)wsl.ch Given Name: Rebecca Family Name: Kurup Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Software
  • Email: daniel.mcgrathfoo(at)colostate.edu Given Name: Daniel Family Name: McGrath Affiliation: Colorado State University DataCRediT: Collection, Validation, Curation, Software
  • Email: reza.naderpourfoo(at)wsl.ch Given Name: Reza Family Name: Naderpour Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: aoepfoo(at)geus.dk Given Name: Allan Østerby Family Name: Pederson Affiliation: GEUS DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: biaperfoo(at)bas.ac.uk Given Name: Bianca Family Name: Perren Affiliation: British Antarctic Survey DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: phillitpfoo(at)colorado.edu Given Name: Thomas Family Name: Phillips Affiliation: Swiss Re DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: gian-kasper.plattnerfoo(at)wsl.ch Given Name: Gian-Kasper Family Name: Plattner Affiliation: WSL DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: m.prokschfoo(at)geoformer.ch Given Name: Martin Family Name: Proksch Affiliation: geoformer igp AG DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: maiken.revheimfoo(at)outlook.com Given Name: Maiken Kristiansen Family Name: Revheim Affiliation: GEUS Additional Affiliation : Copenhagen University DataCRediT: Software
  • Email: martina.saettelefoo(at)rhb.ch Given Name: Martina Family Name: Saettele Affiliation: RHB
  • Email: schneebelifoo(at)slf.ch Given Name: Martin Family Name: Schneebeli Affiliation: SLF DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: ksampsonfoo(at)ucar.edu Given Name: Kevin Family Name: Sampson Affiliation: UCAR DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: sandy.starkweatherfoo(at)noaa.gov Given Name: Sandy Family Name: Starkweather Affiliation: NOAA DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: simon.steffenfoo(at)colorado.edu Given Name: Simon Family Name: Steffen Affiliation: Climanosco DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: Julienne.Stroevefoo(at)umanitoba.ca Given Name: Julienne Family Name: Stroeve Affiliation: University of Manitoba DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: benjamin.walterfoo(at)slf.ch Given Name: Benjamin Family Name: Walter Affiliation: SLF DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: oewfoo(at)geus.dk Given Name: Øyvind Andreas Family Name: Winton Affiliation: GEUS DataCRediT: Collection
  • Email: jayzwallyicefoo(at)verizon.net Given Name: Jay Family Name: Zwally Affiliation: NASA GSFC DataCRediT: Collection, Supervision
Contact Person Given Name: Derek Family Name: Houtz Email: derek.houtzfoo(at)wsl.ch Affiliation: WSL
Subtitles
Publication Publisher: EnviDat Year: 2020
Dates
  • Type: Collected Date: 1996-05-01
Version 1.0
Type dataset
General Type Dataset
Language English
Location Switzerland
Content License Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (CC-BY-SA)    [Open Data]
Last Updated January 28, 2025, 11:17 (UTC)
Created October 8, 2020, 13:21 (UTC)