The Antarctic Automatic Weather Station (AWS) Project is an Antarctic research program at the

Space Science and Engineering Center The Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) is a research and development center with primary focus on Earth science research and technology to enhance understanding of the atmosphere of Earth, the other planets in the Solar System, and the co ...

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin. Founded when Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, UW–Madison ...

that is funded by the Office of Polar Programs at the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

(NSF). The AWS project was started in 1980 by UW-Madison atmospheric sciences Professor Charles R. Stearns. Currently, the UW-Madison AWS project operates and maintains 57 automated weather stations in Antarctica, more than half of all stations currently known to be operating on the continent. Automated weather stations have multiple different sensors that measure temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, and pressure.

Origins

In 1978, Professor Alan Peterson at the Radio Sciences Lab at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

developed the original Antarctic automated weather station. Key operational aspects to the original AWS were low voltage circuitry and the

ARGOS Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses * ...

satellite communications system."About the Automatic Weather Station project". Automatic Weather Station project. The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. Archived from the original on 4 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-15. The ARGOS satellite communication system transmits observational data from every AWS to polar-orbiting weather satellites and then to mid-latitude receiving stations for analysis and archiving.

Research

Data from the UW-Madison Antarctic AWS program has been used for many research studies including, but not limited to:

boundary layer meteorology Boundary or Boundaries may refer to: * Border, in political geography Entertainment * ''Boundaries'' (2016 film), a 2016 Canadian film * ''Boundaries'' (2018 film), a 2018 American-Canadian road trip film *Boundary (cricket), the edge of the pla ...

studies near the

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

Katabatic wind A katabatic wind (named from the Greek word κατάβασις ''katabasis'', meaning "descending") is a drainage wind, a wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Such winds are sometim ...

studies at Reeves Glacier and the

Adelie Coast Adelie or Adélie may refer to: * Adélie Land, a claimed territory on the continent of Antarctica * Adelie Land meteorite, a meteorite discovered on December 5, 1912, in Antarctica by Francis Howard Bickerton * Adélie penguin, a species of pengui ...

, Long Term Ecological Research along the Antarctic Peninsula, and Barrier wind flow studies along the

Transantarctic Mountains The Transantarctic Mountains (abbreviated TAM) comprise a mountain range of uplifted (primarily sedimentary rock, sedimentary) rock in Antarctica which extend, with some interruptions, across the continent from Cape Adare in northern Victoria La ...

and the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...

. Additional studies include flight forecasting and long-term climatology studies at

Dome C Dome C, also known as Dome Circe, Dome Charlie or Dome Concordia, located at Antarctica at an elevation of above sea level, is one of several summits or "domes" of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Dome C is located on the Antarctic Plateau, inland fro ...

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost ...

and historic

Byrd Station The Byrd Station is a former research station established by the United States during the International Geophysical Year by U.S. Navy Seabees during Operation Deep Freeze II in West Antarctica. History A joint Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marin ...

West Antarctica West Antarctica, or Lesser Antarctica, one of the two major regions of Antarctica, is the part of that continent that lies within the Western Hemisphere, and includes the Antarctic Peninsula. It is separated from East Antarctica by the Transant ...

. Although the primary purpose of the AWS station project was intended to collect data on current meteorological conditions, the archive of data, beginning in 1980, has allowed for some recent climatological usage of the data. UW-Madison's AWS network has also been in supporting roles for other domestic and international research institutions for glaciological studies,

tabular iceberg An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open (salt) water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially-derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". The ...

s, and operational weather forecasting.Lazzara, Matthew. "The University of Wisconsin-Madison Antarctic Meteorology Program." ''Meteorological Technology International'' January 2010: 88. Print.

References

External links

The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center and The Automatic Weather Stations Project

The Space Science and Engineering Center
{{University of Wisconsin–Madison University of Wisconsin–Madison Science and technology in Antarctica United States and the Antarctic 1980 establishments in Wisconsin 1980 establishments in Antarctica

Origins

Research

See also

References

External links