Global Telecommunications System

The data from 32 Antarctic AWS units were entered into the Global Telecommunications System (GTS) during 1994. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) headers are:


    SMAA01 KNWC ANTARCTICA
    SIAA01 KNWC ANTARCTICA

Table 3.1 contains the WMO # used by the GTS grouped according to their purpose and proximity where possible.

The data for the GTS are collected by the Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center at Monterey, California by interrogating the ARGOS Timenet file at three or six hour intervals. The data are approximately two hours old at the time of interrogation and are used to generate synoptic maps. The data are also entered in the GTS at the Carswell Automated Digital Weather Switch for routing to the National Weather Service and other international centers. The main reason for getting the AWS data into the GTS is to make sure that the data are available in near real time for all organizations operating in Antarctica. Of all the meteorological data in the GTS received by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology at Hobart, Tasmania, the AWS units provided more surface meteorological data than all the manned stations.