Introduction

A network of automatic weather station (AWS) units is deployed to collect Antarctic surface weather observations in support of specific meteorological research projects as well as operational activities at McMurdo. The 1994 network consisted of 45 installed AWS units providing observations on the Ross Ice Shelf, east of the Transantarctic Mountains and north of McMurdo to the Adelie Coast, along the Antarctic Peninsula and climatological locations such as the South Pole. Each unit measures air temperature, wind speed, and wind direction normally at the top of the unit's tower at a nominal height of three meters and air pressure at the electronics enclosure (Figure 1). Some AWS units also measure the relative humidity at three meters and vertical air temperature difference between 0.5 and 3 meters. Measurement heights relative to the actual surface at the site are nominal due to snow accumulation around the AWS unit.