USAP-DC

Our knowledge of Antarctic weather and climate relies on only a handful of direct observing stations located on this harsh and remote continent. This observing system reports meteorological measurements from an existing network of automatic weather stations (AWS) spread across a vast area. This MRI project will enable the development, testing and eventual deployment of a next generation of polar automatic climate and weather observing stations for unattended use in the Antarctic. The proposed new Automatic Weather Station (AWS) system will enhance the capabilities and accuracy of the meteorological observations, enabling climate quality measurements. This project will involve development of a more capable instrumentation core, with two major goals. The first goal is to lower the cost for an AWS electronic core to 3 times less than currently employed systems. The second is to enable an onboard temperature calibration capability, an innovative development for the Antarctic AWS. The capability for onboard calibration will add confidence in the critical climate measure of ambient temperature, along with other standard meteorological parameters. Observations made by a modernized AWS network will inform and extend future numerical climate modeling efforts, improve operational weather forecasts, capture weather phenomena, and support environmental science research in other disciplines. A theme of the project is the inclusion of community college students in all aspects of the effort. With an eye on training the next generation of research instrumentation expertise, while involving other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, undergraduate students will be involved in the development, testing and deployment of new AWS systems. As well as reporting, data analysis and publication of scientific knowledge, students intending to transfer to a 4-year university, as well as those pursuing electronics or electrical engineering associate degrees will be introduced to weather and climate topics. This MRI award was supported with funds from the Division of Polar Programs and the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, both of the Directorate of Geosciences.

Person	Role
Lazzara, Matthew	Investigator and contact
Cassano, John	Co-Investigator
L''Ecuyer, Tristan	Co-Investigator
Kulie, Mark	Co-Investigator

Unknown Program

Award # 1625904

USAP-1625904_1

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
AMRDC	Skomik PCWS unmodified ten-minute observational data, 2022 - present (ongoing).	ASCII	exist
AMRDC	Sarah PCWS unmodified ten-minute observational data, 2020 - present (ongoing).	ASCII	exist