Antarctic Meteorological Research Center: 1996-2000

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The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC), one of three research centers in the Science and Engineering Technology Center at McMurdo, is a resource for meteorological research and a test bed for improving operational synoptic forecasting. The Man-Computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS), a versatile computer-based system for organizing, manipulating, and integrating antarctic environmental data forms the basis of AMRC. It captures the flow of meteorological information from polar orbiting satellites, automatic weather stations, operational station synoptic observations, and research project data. It also receives environmental data products, such as weather forecasts, from outside Antarctica, and acts as a repository for existing archived data bases. Phase I began in the 1992-93 summer season and consisted of the installation and operation of work stations capable of manipulating and displaying Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data based on the existing satellite imagery acquisition system. This was followed by the acquisition and integration of a system that provided data collection, data display and archiving, scientific applications, network communications, and remote user access. The McIDAS system, developed at the University of Wisconsin in the mid-1970's, ingests meteorological data from various sources: standard synoptic observations, radiosonde profiles, satellite- based visible and infra-red imagery, atmospheric profiles inverted from multi-spectral scanning sensors, and non-standard data such as TOMS ozone data, SAR sea ice information, and the AWS network observations. The system automatically registers, calibrates, and locates (by geographical coordinates) the ingested information and allows a user at a work station to manipulate the data base. The manipulations include sectorization, false color, enhancements, brightness stretching, overlays, looping, differencing, and are quite definitely keyed to synoptic meteorological research and weather forecasting. The antarctic system is based primarily on data streams provided by polar orbiters (AVHRR/HRPT and DMSP), since the look angles from geostationary satellites are so extremely low. The full utilization of McIDAS capabilities in producing meteorological data products useful in both forecasting and research will include a data transfer and communications capability to, for example, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABOM), the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), the Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center (FNOC), Monterey, and the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMRWF), Reading, U.K. The current phase includes the expansion of the archived data base, the design of the system to accept data from future polar-orbiting satellites, and the continuation of product generation and user support.