Fennec automatic weather station (AWS) data from the Saharan Desert between 2011-2013

Data were collected under the NERC funded project - Fennec -The Saharan Climate System. The project was lead by the University of Oxford and involved the Universities of Leeds, Reading, Sussex and the UK Met Office. Fennec investigated the Saharan climate system and the role of dust aerosols, involving a unique surface and aircraft field campaign with the FAAM BAe-146. Various meteorological variables were collected at 3 min 20 second intervals, between 2011 and 2013 at 8 Automatic Weather Stations. Parameters include: 1m pressure, 3 min 20 sec mean 2m windspeed (sonic and cup anemometers), number of windspeeds sampled, variance of windspeed in sample, skew of windspeed in sample, 2m relative humidity, 2 temperature, soil temperature (2 depths), ground flux, shortwave radiation up and down, longwave radiation up and down. Specific station locations are stated both in the data files and the CEDA platform record. One station had to be moved after the first year, hence there are 9 station locations listed. Due to harsh environmental conditions a number of the AWS stopped operating after deployment. Additional information regarding instrument issues and missing data can be found in a PDF on the CEDA archive.