Data Availability

The data from our Automatic Weather Stations are available by anonymous FTP. The login is "anonymous" (do not use the quotation marks), and the password is your email address. Once you have logged in, change to the pub subdirectory. A listing of our station locations, names, and ARGOS ID numbers is located in the file "biglist" in this subdirectory. It is meant to serve as a guide to our stations as their ID numbers sometimes change.

(Please note that many of the instructions listed below refer to files that have since been moved, removed, or replaced. For the most recent list of our stations, download the 'biglist' file from the pub directory of the ftp site above. For a guide on navigating the ftp site, download the 'readme.faq' file from the same directory. If you have questions, please contact us for assistance.)

Our three-hourly interval data for Antarctica are contained in the year subdirectories of pub/antrdr. The data have been corrected, i.e. an effort has been made to remove the bad data points. These data take longer to process, so the data for recent months are not available. Within each of the year subdirectories of pub/antrdr, there are text files named "3hrlist??" (where ?? indicates the last two digits of the year). These files list what station's data are contained in which files.

The directory pub/readthis contains text files detailing the file name construction and format of the three-hourly data. The file "pcfile.doc" contains file name construction information, while "readme.newdata" and "readme.corrections" provide news of updates and corrections. The file "readme.mailinglist" contains information on joining a mailing list which distributes information on data updates and changes.

The directory pub/summary contains printable text files of the paper data summary sheets. The format of the files can be found in the file "readme.sum" while updates and corrections to the data are located in "readme.sumupdates". The data are located in year subdirectories of pub/summary.

For those users who need more current information, we have created 10 minute interval data for each station. These data are located in year subdirectories of pub/10min/rdr. The data have been calibrated for the individual station instruments, but no other corrections have been made. The data are generally available up to and including the last full month of this year. The year subdirectories also contain a text file named "namelist??" (where ?? indicates the last two digits of the year in question). These files list specifically what station's data are contained in which files.

Several important readme files are located in pub/10min/rdr. The file "readme.10min" contains basic information about the data and the compressed archives of ten-minute data, located in pub/10min/rdr/months. Addendum - the compressed archive files are no longer available. The file "readme.5digit" contains information on the Siple Coast stations which have a different station identification. The file "readme.format" contains information on filename construction of the data, as well as well as file content and is a must for those unfamiliar with the data. The file "readme.updates" contains important information on changes/additions to the data.

Our site is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can visit our Antarctic projects web site at http://uwamrc.ssec.wisc.edu/. If you have questions or problems, contact us. We can also be reached by fax at (608) 263-6738. By postal mail, please contact:

Linda M. Keller
University of Wisconsin
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
1225 W. Dayton St.
Madison, WI 53706
USA

(Please note that many of the instructions listed above refer to files that have since been moved, removed, or replaced. For the most recent list of our stations, download the 'biglist' file from the pub directory of the ftp site above. For a guide on navigating the ftp site, download the 'readme.faq' file from the same directory. If you have questions, please contact us for assistance.)