nsa - Central Facility, Atqasuk AK

Established
1999-08-21
Removed
2011-01-17
Latitude
70.4718° N
Longitude
157.407° W
Altitude
20 meters
Surface Type
Tundra
Instruments
12 (0 active)
Primary Measurement Types
18 (0 active)

The Atqasuk facility, which was part of the larger ARM North Slope of Alaska (NSA) observatory, was installed in the summer of 1999 off of a road near the Atqasuk Airport and operated through 2010. Located approximately 70 miles south of Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Atqasuk is adjacent to the Meade River.

Atqasuk has an economy that is largely based on subsistence fishing and caribou hunting. The community infrastructure includes a store, gas station, school, health clinic, firehouse, community center, power plant, water plant, and airport. Travel to and from Atqasuk is typically by scheduled bush airline. There are at least four scheduled flights to and from Atqasuk from Utqiaġvik each day. Local people also travel by snow machine.

With no landlines running to Atqasuk (or to Utqiaġvik for that matter), this meant that all communications, both voice and data, were through commercially supplied satellite links. Data were transferred through a 56K line, which was sufficient for the instrumentation bandwidth load.

Click to enlarge images.

Welcome to Atqasuk!
Overhead View of C2 Site

Site Instrument Shelter, Skydeck, and Storage Containers

Inside the “Pumpkin Shelter”

Instruments deployed at NSA - Central Facility, Atqasuk AK

camera that monitors a site area
2002-03-25 - 2011-01-17
Ceilometer
1999-08-22 - 2011-01-17
Ground Radiometers on Stand for Upwelling Radiation
2000-05-25 - 2011-01-17
Surface Meteorological Instrumentation
2003-11-06 - 2011-01-17
Surface and Tower Meteorological Instrumentation at NSA
2001-03-31 - 2003-10-25
Multifilter Radiometer
2000-04-25 - 2010-11-18
Multifilter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer
1999-08-23 - 2010-11-18
Microwave Radiometer
1999-10-18 - 2011-01-03
Normal Incidence Multifilter Radiometer
2000-04-16 - 2010-11-18
Sky Radiometers on Stand for Downwelling Radiation
1999-08-21 - 2011-01-17
Facility-specific multi-level Meteorological Instrumentation
2003-11-06 - 2011-01-17
Whole Sky Imager
2001-09-14 - 2004-01-01

Primary Measurements collected at nsa - Central Facility, Atqasuk AK

Atmospheric moisture
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Atmospheric pressure
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Atmospheric temperature
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Backscattered radiation
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Horizontal wind
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Liquid water path
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Longwave broadband downwelling irradiance
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Longwave broadband upwelling irradiance
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Microwave narrowband brightness temperature
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Precipitation
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Shortwave broadband diffuse downwelling irradiance
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Shortwave broadband direct normal irradiance
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Shortwave broadband total downwelling irradiance
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Shortwave broadband total upwelling irradiance
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Shortwave narrowband diffuse downwelling irradiance
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Shortwave narrowband diffuse upwelling irradiance
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Shortwave narrowband direct normal irradiance
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Visibility
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