Antarctic Automatic Weather (AWS) Meeting 2004 - Abstracts
Wisconsin Automatic Weather Station Servicing by BAS for Summer 2003/2004
Steve Colwell
British Antarctic Survey
Uranus Glacier
Visited on 21/12/2003
The AWS was buried up to the electronic box. The entire mast was dug up; this involved digging a 2.5 m hole around the base that took about 2 hours. The mast was then
re-erected at its original site after filling in the whole. The battery cables did not need to be extended but are now at maximum reach.
The orientation of the boom seemed incorrect when the aircraft arrived as it was pointing towards 131° true. When the mast was re-erected it was realigned as best
could be done but because of complications it was only possible to realign it to 60° True.
New boom height after raise: 3.5 m
Butler Island
Visited on 22/12/03
The mast was not raised but the old solar panel and charging box were removed. The new solar panel was mounted on the mast. The new battery box was placed at the bottom
of the mast in a hole that just buried it on the western side of the mast. A flag was placed on top of the box so it could easily be located.
The wind vane was replaced with a repaired one. New cables were connected and the AWS started up without any trouble.
Boom Height 295 cm
Ski Blu
Visited on 28/12/2003
The AWS looked to be in good condition. A 1m extension was added to the mast.
New boom height: 397 cm.
Limbert
Visited 19/1/04 to 20/1/04
The AWS was moved to a new location away from the ice edge. A new battery box and solar panel were installed along with a new aerovane. The boom was aligned to true
North.
Boom Height: 420 cm
Larsen Ice Shelf
Date:2/1/2004
The AWS was dismantled and moved to a new site approximately 15 km inland. A new battery box and solar panel were installed.
New Boom Height: 460 cm
Summary of positions and height
Butler Island S 72 12.38 W 060 10.18 205m
Sky Blu S 74 47.53 W 071 29.31 1510m
Uranus Glacier S 71 21.67 W 068 47.83 753m
Limbert S 75 54.85 W 059 15.86 40m
Larsen Ice Shelf S 67 00.70 W 061 32.97 17m
There is a concern that the pressure data from both Butler Island and Sky Blu is getting incorrectly converted before being transmitted onto the GTS. The pressure at
Butler Island was measured as 989.2Hpa during the servicing visit but a value of 974.3hPa was received via the GTS. At Sky Blu the measured pressure was 862.8hPa but a value
of 814.3hPa was received via the GTS. The pressure data from these AWS are not currently been included in the models.
New battery boxes were also installed on the 3 of the units this season, the battery boxes were designed in-house at BAS and consist of 2 100HA batteries, a 40W solar
panel and associated electronics, it is planned the 2 more battery boxes are constructed and installed in the 2004/05 season.
ATS Weather Station Locations
Christopher Knox, Michael Rugg, and Arthur Cayette
Space and Naval Warfare System Center, Charleston, South Carolina
SPAWAR System Center, Charleston's Aviation Technical Services (ATS) Division provides weather observations from various sources through out the field season. Selected
surface weather observations can be obtained from NOAA Port or a complete collection from the University of Wisconsin, AMRC. This presentation will provide the location of
ATS Surface Weather reporting systems in the McMurdo Region.
United States Antarctic Program Weather Station Modifications
Bill Vandiver, Robert Vehorn, Arthur Cayette, and Matt Rushing
Space and Naval Warfare System Center, Charleston, South Carolina
SPAWAR System Center, Charleston's Aviation Technical Services (ATS) Division will field two changes in the 2004/05 season. A new MET Kit will be provided to camp
personnel replacing the overall utility of the large systems in a compacted unit, and replacing the smaller individual components of smaller field kits. This system will
employ many expanded capabilities external displays from windows based systems, and external monitoring using Iridium modem capabilities. ATS has conducted an engineering
change to modify the existing Automated Weather Stations (AWS) to best suit the environment. Factory systems offered plastic connectors that were tightly spaced making
working in the extreme cold difficult and breakage predominate for maintenance personnel, battery performance and heat loss was not optimized, and equipment foot print
promoted snow accumulation. This presentation provides the design and solution that ATS implemented to satisfy USAP Meteorology field requirements.
Meteorological Data Collection Modernization at South Pole Station, Antarctica
Kathie A. Hill
Science Support
Raytheon Polar Services
Centennial,CO
Historically, meteorological data collection at South Pole Station has been accomplished by the performance of manned observations. Observations included the manual
recording of a visual record from various meteorological instruments at the time of observation. These hourly observations have then become the basis for further
climatological reports produced monthly and annually since 1957. The instruments in support of the observations and reports produced by South Pole Meteorologists have been
notoriously outdated and lacked cohesive calibration and maintenance programs. Also, researches have been unable at times to reconcile issues discovered within the South
Pole data record due to a lack of available information regarding instrumentation types, performance, and observer practices. The dependence on manually transcribed records
of the instrument data has also introduced data errors and contributed to South Pole data reliability issues. In the hopes of improving the integrity of meteorological data
collected at South Pole and provide improved support to science and aviation, several procedural and system changes will be implemented along with total instrument
replacements. As part of the current South Pole Station Modernization (SPSM) project, a new atmospheric data collection system was installed at South Pole Station in January
2004. Further, a new upper air system will be installed the summer of 04/05. These systems will allow for the archival of 1-minute resolution data, the addition of new
sensor types and better automation of archived data. Additionally, new instrumentation tracking processes will provide researchers with detailed information on the status of
performance of the instruments feeding the South Pole data archive.
The purpose of this discussion is to inform researchers of improved data capabilities at South Pole and the impact to reporting and data formats of the modernization
implementations. Information on the new instrument suites will be provided and future plans outlined. Advise and feedback of the conference participants will be requested to
ensure concerns of researchers are addressed within implementation plans.
Space Systems Experience For Antarctic Scientific Support
Robert Twiggs
Stanford University
The Stanford University Space Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL) as part of the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics has experience in a student designed and
managed small satellite program. With the space experience and several years of Antarctic remote weather station and imaging experience, SSDL is now in providing
communication networking and mobile units for scientific support.
Increased Exposure of Southern Ocean Phytoplankton to Ultraviolet Radiation
Dan Lubin
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
This paper is given as an example illustrating how multisensor satellite data can address key scientific issues throughout Antarctica. Satellite remote sensing of both
surface solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and chlorophyll over two decades shows that biologically significant ultraviolet radiation increases began to occur over the
Southern Ocean three years before the ozone "hole" was discovered. Beginning in October 1983, the most frequent occurrences of enhanced UVR over phytoplankton-rich waters
occurred in the Weddell Sea and Indian Ocean sectors of the Southern Ocean, impacting 60% of the surface biomass by the late 1990s. These results suggest two reasons why
more serious impacts to the base of the marine food web may not have been detected by field experiments: (1) the onset of UVR increases several years before dedicated field
work began may have impacted the most sensitive organisms long before such damage could be detected, and (2) most biological field work has so far not taken place in
Antarctic waters most extensively subjected to enhanced UVR. Methods for combining various satellite data sources to map UVR and cholorphyll will be discussed, along with
the physiological impact of enhanced UV-B radiation on Antarctic marine organisms.
References:
Arrigo, K. R., D. Lubin, G. L. van Dijken, O. Holm-Hansen, and E. Morrow, 2003: Impact of a deep ozone hole on Southern Ocean primary production, Journal of Geophysical
Research, 108, doi:10.1029/2001JC001226.
Lubin, D., K. R. Arrigo, and G. L. van Dijken, 2004: Increased exposure of Southern Ocean phytoplankton to ultraviolet radiation, Geophysical Research Letters, 31, doi:10.1029/2004GL019633.
An Update on the READER Project
Steve Colwell
British Antarctic Survey
The READER project is now almost complete, all of the Russian upper air data have been received and updated on the READER web pages. The only missing upper air data is
the French and Argentinean data and this is being chased up by SCAR. The surface data is also now complete except for a gap in the McMurdo record between 1988 and 1998.
Several papers have now been published both on the data collection side of READER and also on the trends that can be seen in the data, I
will present some of the results on the trends in surface and upper air temperature data and also comparing the temperature data of adjacent stations.
McMurdo Weather Network Reconfiguration
Al Pruitt, and Debbie Hendrix
Space and Naval Warfare System Center, Charleston, SC
SPAWAR System Center, Charleston’s Aviation Technical Services (ATS) Division will undergo a network upgrade for meteorological
services. The network upgrade will correspond with Building 165 reconfiguration during WINFLY 2004. The project will consist of replacement of the current ATS Weather
Server, elimination of the ATS Automated Weather Station (AWS) Server, and replacement of the associated workstations. Local collection, distribution, and display of MET
data will be improved and allow expanded capabilities for future growth in areas of MET data collection, archive, and distribution. A storage server will host the external
data and University of Wisconsin access will be maintained for AMRC display, archive, and data distribution through ADDE, and SSEC Data Center. A slight disruption of
services can be expected Mid-September during the transition process. This presentation will introduce the basic structure of the ATS network. This will allow the
infrastructure to support bandwidth reductions and improve performance.
Data Assimilation for Aviation Technical Services Operational Forecasting
Chester Clogston, and Arthur Cayette
Space and Naval Warfare System Center, Charleston, South Carolina
SPAWAR System Center, Charleston's Aviation Technical Services (ATS) Division dissemination and collection of environmental data allows complete support of Operations
conducted by the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). Unilateral cooperative of data exchange from international and inter-agency's efforts, provide the key components
for forecast development. ATS Meteorological Services can provide detailed support for aviation, ships, and area forecasts based on the best collection of information in
this most remote location. This poster will provide an understanding of operational data collection sources and utility for the development of forecast products.
An Antarctic Cloud Mass Transport Climatology
J. A. Staude, C. R. Stearns, M. A. Lazzara, L. M. Keller, and S. A. Ackerman
Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC)
Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC)
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center at the Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison has created over 10 years of Antarctic composite
infrared (~11.0 micron) satellite images. These images offer a good view of clouds and their motion about the Southern Hemisphere, and specifically their advection or
transport onto the Antarctic continent. During the last 10 years when the composites were being constructed, it has been noticed that there are extended periods when clouds
from storm systems or other cloud masses would be transported nearly perpendicularly onto specific regions of the Antarctic continent. These transport events occur with some
periodicity over the last 10 years.
This poster will explain how these transport events have been studied in further detail using the first 10 years of composites available on videotape. In the study, four
regions were focused on that received the most cloud transport events. These regions will be focused on and a compilation and statistical analysis of the events in these
regions will be reviewed, especially as it compares to other long-term climate signals such as El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) via the Southern Oscillation Index.
The main future direction for this work includes the use of reanalysis data from the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). This study will focus on a
specific transport event lasting greater than 10 days. In the study, cloud mass transport and variables such as pressure and relative humidity will be compared to determine
if the cloud mass transport is being accurately depicted. The outcome of this research would be useful in verifying the accuracy of the NCEP model data. It can also be used
as a tool in assisting short term forecasting in the events a significant storm impacts the continent, such as the recent medical evacuation from the South Pole. Some future
directions for this work include looking at other climate signals, such as the Antarctic Oscillation and the Semi – Annual Oscillation.
NPOESS Schedule and Processes
Arthur Cayette
SPAWAR/ATS
This presentation will provide an update to the NPOESS Era schedule, data management, data processes, and Field Terminal requirements. NPOESS implementation will alter the operational utility of satellite use and offer the research community complex data sets for developmental and supportive applications. The final NPOESS system will have a closed architecture containing over 1,000,000 lines of code. Field systems will require multiple processors to extract the data sets. Level-1B and 2 processes will be fixed until later versions are developed, approved, and distributed from NPOESS through a Field Terminal Representative (FTR). These FTR's have not been appointed but are expected to be a single POC for NPOESS by user group.
