Antarctic Meteorology Research Center

Automatic Weather Stations

The AMRC manages the Automatic Weather Station Project, which puts AWS units in secluded areas of Antarctica in support of meteorological research and operations. The AWS data are recorded by the Argos Data Collection System (DCS) on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and MetOp series of polar-orbiting satellites. The importance of these stations is particularly significant for Antarctica, which has large territories with forbidding temperatures and considerable elevation that are extremely hard for humans to reach. The idea of an automated system allowed researchers to overcome these material difficulties and reduce the costs of maintaining staffed stations for meteorological observations.

Automatic weather stations allow important weather information to be gathered without a person on duty at each site. These stations are considered a fundamental resource for researchers, forecasters, and the general public as they supply important meteorological information about the Antarctic. At the end of the 2003–04 field season, just under 60 stations were operational in the Antarctic. Since 2007, the AMRC's Arctic Project made parallel Arctic satellite composites available in order to study Arctic pollution. Both the Antarctic and Arctic satellite composites are constantly being improved in accuracy and resolution. From the initial 6.2 mi. (10 km) nominal resolution, for example, composites have now progressed to a 3.1 mi. (5 km) nominal resolution. The satellite composites of the Arctic Project are renewed every three hours, amounting to eight images per day.

Charles R. Stearns, the founder of the AMRC, was the person behind the establishment of the AWS. A renowned polar researcher for over two decades, Stearns began the AWS project at the University of Wisconsin in 1980 by purchasing the first AWS designed at Stanford University. These stations were then adapted for their Antarctic locations. The purpose of the AWS was to allow the first meteorological data to be acquired for the continent. As of 2009, there were over 55 stations in the Antarctic belonging to the AWS project. The data from the AWS systems are transferred back to the University of Wisconsin. They are then processed, disseminated to the public, and used for educational outreach activities, free of charge. The weather stations are 10 ft. tall and equipped to record temperature, humidity, air pressure, and wind speed and direction. The cost of each station is approximately $15,000.

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