Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Page 101

ARKTISKA FJALLAVEÐRIÐ í 2000 Á SORNFELLI
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Figure 4. Tlie lowerpart of the completely bent meteorological mast at Norðradalsskarð, 282 m asl., after the 21
December 1988 hurricane. Plioto by LV, Dec 1988.
The technical design of the Sornfelli
meteorological station
Only 700 km southeast of Sornfelli, in the
Scottish Highlands, the Cairn Gonn Auto-
matic Weather Station, located at 1245 m
asl., at 57°N and 3°W, operates in a moun-
tain climate much like the one at Sornfelli.
This station was designed and built by the
Physics Department, University of Edin-
burgh, and has been in operation since
1977, recording wind speed, wind direction
and air temperature, in one of the most se-
vere climates of the UK (Crowder and Bar-
ton, 2000). To combat the effects of heavy
icing the instruments are housed in a heat-
ed cylinder, fixed to the underside of a lid,
which is lifted up and the instruments ex-
posed for recording for 3 minutes every
half hour (Crowder and Barton, 2000). This
station was used as the basic design idea for
the Sornfelli meteorological station.
The meteorological consultancy compa-
ny Metsupport, ApS. from Roskilde in
Denmark, was contracted to design the sta-
tion at Sornfelli including maintenance.
The Sornfelli meteorological station is con-
structed to combat icing, by keeping the in-
struments inside a heated cylinder and ex-
posing them for measuring periodically
(Fig. 5). The engineering preparations of
the Sornlelli site were carried out by LV.
The fully automatic Sornfelli meteoro-