########################################################################### # Notice on the use of Antarctic Meteorological Research Center data sets # ########################################################################### # The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC) collects, archives # # and provides Antarctic meteorological observational data to the # # community and public for research, logistic, and educational activities.# # The AMRC requests acknowledgement for use of the data in any published # # work. See http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/acknowledgement.html for details on # # how to acknowledge AMRC data, displays or information. # # If the AMRC data are critical to the work, co-authorship may be # # appropriate. Please contact the AMRC in such a case. # # # # AMRC Contact Information: # # Address: 947 Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Building # # 1225 West Dayton Street # # Madison, Wisconsin, USA 53706 # # Telephone: +1 (608) 262-0436 # # Fax: +1 (608) 263-6738 # # E-mail: amrc@ssec.wisc.edu # # Web: http://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/ # # FTP: ftp://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/ # # McIDAS ADDE: Group AMRC and ARCHIVE on aws.ssec.wisc.edu # # RAMADDA: https://amrc.ssec.wisc.edu/repository/ # # Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AMRCAWS # # Twitter: http://twitter.com/antmet # # YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/AMRCantmet # # Wikipedia: # # http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Meteorological_Research_Center # # http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Automatic_Weather_Stations_Project # # # Updated: 15 July 2013 # # # ########################################################################### The filenames of the data are set up as follows: the first four digits are the ARGOS ID # of the unit, the next two are the month, followed by two more digits indicating the year. All files have a .r extension. So, a filename like 89060589.r would be data for site 8906 during May of 1989. Some files have an 'x' in the filename; this is done when there are data for the same ID # for two or more sites during the same month. An 'x' may replace the '0' in the month part of the filenames during January and February, and replace the leading 8 in March through December, or alternately replace the leading '8' for all months in question (prevalent with 1994-on) . It is important to watch for these files. A file such as 8911x189.r would be data for 8911 during January of 1989, and so would 89110189.r; the thing to note is that, either two stations existed side by side with the same filename, or the station was moved part way through the month. A file such as x9150690.r would be a file in a similar fashion, though this one is obviously for 8915 during June of 1990. Additionally, during 1988, there were two pairs of stations with the same id numbers (8902 and 8916). One group is simply given in the filenames as 8902####.r and 8916####.r, and the other pair appear the same, though with an x instead of the 9 in the name. Starting in 1994, several AWS units had five-digit ID numbers. The filename formats have been shortened by a number to stay consistent with the other files. These stations, ranging from 21355 through 21364 lose the leading '2' in their filenames. Thus, the filename for December 1994 of ID# 21358 would be 13581294.r. The header would also read "Dec 94 Station: 1358 Station Name". It is important to keep in mind that the real IDs include the initial '2'. However, starting in 2001, the file formatting changed: the first five digits indicate the ARGOS ID#, instead of the original four digits. This way, all 5 digits of the new ID numbers could be used. If the file begins with a zero, i.e. 08965####.r, the ID# is actually only 4 digits, in this case, the ID# would really be 8965. The data are organized in ten minute intervals, with either six or eight columns. The data are also uncorrected; ie. they still have bad data points. They have been taken directly from the originally transmitted hexadecimal data. The data sets with six columns are organized as follows: each file has a two line header, followed by data. The columns are: julian day, ten minute interval marker, temperature, pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. The ten minute interval marker is a number between 1 and 144 representing time; 1 is 00:00, 2 is 00:10, 3 is 00:20, 7 is 01:00, and 144 is 23:50. The eight column data is exactly the same as the six column, except for the two additional columns: humidity and vertical temperature difference. (Bonaparte Point and Santa Claus Island have water temperature instead of vertical temperature difference). The temperature difference is the top measurement minus the bottom measurement. All times listed are GMT and missing data are indicated as 444.0. Wind directions listed are the direction the wind is blowing from, from 0 to 360 clockwise (thus 90 degrees is east, 180 is south and 270 is west). The data is in the following units: temperatures in degrees Celsius, station pressure in millibars, wind speed in meters per second, wind direction in meteorological degrees, and relative humidity in percent.