The History, Operation and Performance of an Experimental Automatic Weather Station in Antarctica.

• Main Authors: Renard,Robert J, Salinas,Manuel G
• Other Authors: NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CALIF
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1977
• Subjects: Meteorology; *WEATHER STATIONS; *REMOTE SYSTEMS; *ANTARCTIC REGIONS; *AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS; TEST AND EVALUATION; TEMPERATURE; DATA TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS; PLATFORMS; ENERGY CONVERSION; WIND DIRECTION; INSTRUMENTATION; WIND VELOCITY; BAROMETRIC PRESSURE; STRONTIUM; RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES; SCIENTIFIC SATELLITES; WEATHER COMMUNICATIONS; AWS(Automatic Weather Station); NIMBUS 6 satellite; RAMS(Random Access Measurement System); Antarctic; Marble Point; South Pole; Antarc*; Antarctica; South pole
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA048410; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA048410

The paper describes the prototype Automatic Weather Station platform (AWS), developed at Stanford University, and presents an evaluation of the data produced by its temperature, pressure and wind sensors while the platform was deployed at three locations on Antarctica (South Pole, McMurdo and Marble Point) during the years 1975-77. The major purpose of the Antarctica test was to monitor the durability of the platform and its sensors and electronics, under harsh climate conditions. Instrument redundancy was employed for the measurement of pressure and wind. Data transmission from the sensors was effected by the Nimbus 6 Random Access Measurement System (RAMS). The evaluation is represented by a statistical analysis of the deviations of AWS readings from official observations at South Pole and McMurdo, as appropriate. These indicate that the pressure transducers functioned well throughout the period while temperature and wind sensors malfunctioned at various times. Deviations for most instruments exceeded those of the manufacturer's stated accuracies.