OTT Pluvio²L in use for a research project in Antarctica

"We want to demonstrate that we now have the capability to measure the really small amounts of snow that accumulate from event to event in the Antarctic environment" explained Scott Landolt, Associate Scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. To help achieve the research objectives, the team has deployed snowfall collection instruments including a particle size measurement sensor and an elevated (~ 3.5 meters above the ground) and wind screen-protected OTT Pluvio² precipitation gauge. The height of the precipitation gauge above ground helps it to avoid measuring some of the blowing snow and the wind screen to slow the wind and help improve the snowfall collection capabilities of the gauge. The sensor suite also includes additional weather measurements including temperature, wind speed, and accumulating snow height. A day and night webcam is used to monitor the sensors. A nearby Antarctic Weather Station (AWS) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison serves as a backup for some of these measurements.

In total, four APS sensor suites are now deployed, which will run for two years: One at Williams Airfield and one at Phoenix Airfield near McMurdo Station, one at the "Lorne" AWS site 50 miles Southeast of McMurdo on the Ross Ice Shelf and one at "Tall Tower", which could soon become the most important US meteorological observatory in Antarctica and lies about 100 miles southeast of McMurdo Station.