Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.2002, Qupperneq 108

106
ARCTIC MOUNTAIN METEOROLOGY AT THE SORNFELLI MOUNTAIN
IN YEAR 2000 IN THE FAROE ISLANDS
Figure !0. Lapse rate
between Sornfelli
meteorological station
(726 m asl.) and the
meteorologica! station at
Sund, Kaldbaksfjørður
(3.5 m asl.), operated by
the Office of Public Works
for the year 2000.
Normally the air
temperature is lower at
Sornfelli than at Sund
with a negative lapse rate.
matic environment with remote access, has
proven successful. The station withstood
severe lightning and was operative through
a whole winter with several storms and 6
major icing events. The longest icing lasted
around 12 hours. The station had a 95 %
data coverage during the first year of oper-
ation, which is primarily due to the constant
remote monitoring of the station perfor-
mance and quick local assistance.
The combination of the three air temper-
atures for constructing a corrected air tem-
perature, excludes icing effects and radia-
tional reflection from the ground, and al-
lows better measurements during calm
overcast or night conditions, when the un-
shielded sensor is used. Only 37 % of the
time the recordings from the fíxed sensor
outside the cylinder was used for the cor-
rected air temperature, showing that the
heated platform concept is useful, when
measuring at Sornfelli. The wind record-
ings did suffer from rare unreal spikes with
the low frequency of 0.3%o.
Therefore the Sornfelli meteorological
station has turned out to be a reliable and
robust mountain meteorological station,
able to record the oceanic, maritime moun-
tain climate of the Faroe Islands. The pre-
sented air temperature and wind data from
Sornfelli thus contribute signifícantly to
start documenting the Faroese mountain
climate, and its vertical gradients.
Arctic climate on the Faroe Islands
In 2000 the MAAT was 1.71 °C at Sornfelli
at 726 m asl. and 7.3°C at sea Ievel at Sund
in Kaldbaksfjørður, with a mean annual
lapse rate of -0.0077°C/m. These meteoro-
logical data clearly locate the Sornfelli
mountain well within the polar ET-climate
of the Koppen climate classification system
(Koppen, 1918), with a mean air tempera-
ture of the warmest month higher than 0°C,
but lower than 10°C. At sea level a moist
climate with a short and cool summer and a
mild winter of the Cfc climate type exist ac-
cording to the Koppen classification.