MRI: Development of a Modern Polar Climate and Weather Automated Observing System

我们对南极天气和气候的了解仅依赖于这块严酷而偏远大陆上的少数几个直接观测站。这个观测系统报告分布在大片地区的现有自动气象站(AWS)网络的气象测量数据。这一磁共振成像项目将能够开发、测试并最终部署下一代极地自动气候和天气观测站，供无人值守的南极使用。拟议的新自动气象站(AWS)系统将提高气象观测的能力和准确性，使气候质量得以测量。这个项目将涉及开发一个更有能力的仪器核心，有两个主要目标。第一个目标是将AWS电子核心的成本降低到目前使用的系统的三分之一。第二个是启用机载温度校准能力，这是南极自动气象站的一项创新发展。机载校准的能力将增加对环境温度的关键气候测量以及其他标准气象参数的信心。由现代化的AWS网络进行的观测将为未来的气候数值模拟工作提供信息，并扩大其范围，改进业务天气预报，捕捉天气现象，并支持其他学科的环境科学研究。该项目的一个主题是将社区大学生纳入努力的各个方面。着眼于培养下一代研究仪器专业知识，同时涉及其他科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域，本科生将参与新AWS系统的开发、测试和部署。除了报告、数据分析和科学知识的出版，打算转到四年制大学的学生以及那些攻读电子或电气工程副学士学位的学生将被介绍给天气和气候主题。这个MRI奖得到了地球科学理事会极地项目部和大气和地球空间科学部的资金支持。

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.