Weather Stations
Each of the three valleys we are studying has an automatic weather station, which is a collection of sensors that continuously record weather data throughout the year. The stations are invaluable because they provide precious information about the physical environment in the valleys while we’re not there – which is most of the year – and through the harshest stretch of winter, when the sun never rises and temperatures can plunge to -70˚C. The stations have sensors for total radiation, wind speed and direction, air temperature and relative humidity, and soil temperature at 2 and 10cm depths. The sensors are powered on only four AA lithium batteries, which last the whole year and perform much better than alkaline batteries in the cold. All the data are stored on a chip protected inside a tough plastic box, and once a year we download the data directly onto our laptops using a serial cable. The whole process takes only a few minutes – unless your laptop gets hypothermic and requires a little extra help. (See the pictures!)