Thursday, February 28, 2013

View to the west

An automated camera on the AWS records both the glacier surface evolution and riming of the station. The clip below was assembled from images taken over a 5-month interval, at a time of day which best shows surface texture. Not all days were included here, as the surface isn't visible when rime obscures the camera housing window!

The date stamp on each image allows meteorological conditions to be assessed at the time. For example, drifting snow is evident on 24 October, when wind speed was ~9 m/s; or compare albedo on 25 or 27 October (~0.62) with that on 2 November (0.84). Although not immediately apparent in these images, the 2011 dry season on Quelccaya ended on 9 September, when the glacier surface was ~18 cm lower than that in the first image (10 July).