sakai_2006a.htm

Bulletin of Glaciological Research 23 (2006) 23-32
©Japanese Society of Snow and Ice

Meteorological observation at July 1st Glacier in northwest China from 2002 to 2005

Akiko SAKAI¹, Yoshihiro MATSUDA¹, Koji FUJITA¹, Sumito MATOBA², Jun UETAKE⁴,
Kazuhide SATOW⁵, Keqin DUAN⁶, Jianchen PU⁶, Masayoshi NAKAWO⁷ and Tandong YAO⁸
1 Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, HyARC, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
2 Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0819, Japan
4 Faculty of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
5 Nagaoka National College of Technology, 888 Nishi-katakai-machi Nagaoak-city Niigata 940-8532, Japan
6 Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 260 Donggang West
Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
7 Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, 335 Takashima-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 602-0878, Japan
8 Institute of Tibet Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 10085, Beijing, China

Abstract

　 Meteorological observations were carried out at July 1st Glacier (J1G) in Northwest China. An automatic weather station was established at the glacier terminus 4295m a.s.l. altitude from June 2002 to August 2005. Manual meteorological observations and dust particle counting have also been conducted at the Base Camp during the summers of 2002, 2003 and 2004. The catch ratio of the precipitation was calibrated, separating it into rain and snow depending on the air temperature, which relation has been observed at Base Camp. The calibrated annual precipitation in 2002 was about 340 mm, which was more than 20% above the observed value. Inter-annual variations in the meteorological data revealed that there were remarkable wet calm and cloudy periods during the summer 2002.