The AntAWS dataset: a compilation of Antarctic automatic weather station observations

• Main Authors: Wang, Yetang, Zhang, Xueying, Ning, Wentao, Lazzara, Matthew A., Ding, Minghu, Reijmer, Carleen H., Smeets, Paul C. J. P., Grigioni, Paolo, Thomas, Elizabeth R., Zhai, Zhaosheng, Sun, Yuqi, Hou, Shugui
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-241; https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2022-241/

A new dataset of meteorological records from Antarctic automatic weather stations (here called AntAWS dataset) at 3-hourly, daily and monthly resolutions is constructed with quality control. This dataset compiles the measurements of air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction from 216 AWSs available during 1980–2021. Their spatial distribution remains heterogeneous, with a majority of instrumented sites located on the coastal areas, and less at the inland East Antarctic Plateau. Among the 216 AWSs, 55 of them have the records spanning more than 20 years, and 25 of them spanning more than 30 years. Among the five meteorological parameters, the air temperature measurement data have the best continuity and the highest data integrity. The comprehensive compilation of AWS observations has the main aim to make them easy and time-saving to be used for local, regional and continental studies, which can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.48567/key7-ch19 (Wang et al., 2022). This dataset will be valuable for better characterizing surface climatology throughout the continent of Antarctica, improving our understanding of Antarctic surface snow-atmosphere interactions, and estimating regional climate models or meteorological reanalysis products.