Air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction in the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 1998–2011

This report provides air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction data collected on Federal lands in Arctic Alaska over the period August 1998 to July 2011 by the U.S. Department of the Interior's climate monitoring array, part of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost. In addition to presenting data, this report also describes monitoring, data collection, and quality control methodology. This array of 16 monitoring stations spans 68.5°N to 70.5°N and 142.5°W to 161°W, an area of roughly 150,000 square kilometers. Climate summaries are presented along with provisional quality-controlled data. Data collection is ongoing and includes several additional climate variables to be released in subsequent reports, including ground temperature and soil moisture, snow depth, rainfall, up- and downwelling shortwave radiation, and atmospheric pressure. These data were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in close collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.