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位于这片严酷而偏远大陆上的少数几个直接观测站。该观测系统报告分布在广阔地区的现有自动气象站（AWS）网络的气象测量结果。这一磁共振成像项目将有助于开发、测试和最终部署下一代极地自动气候和天气观测站，供在南极无人值守使用。拟议的新自动气象站系统将提高气象观测的能力和准确性，使气候质量测量成为可能。该项目将涉及一个更强大的仪器核心的发展，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。第二个是实现机载温度校准能力，这是南极AWS的一项创新发展。 机载校准能力将增加对环境温度的关键气候测量的信心，沿着还有其他标准气象参数。现代化的AWS网络进行的观测将为未来的数值气候建模工作提供信息和扩展，改善业务天气预报，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外，还将向打算转入四年制大学的学生以及攻读电子或电气工程副学士学位的学生介绍天气和气候主题。该MRI奖由地球科学理事会的极地计划部门和大气和地球空间科学部门资助。

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.