Below is a set of information on AMRC, for those of you interested.
Matthew
Antarctic
Meteorological Research Center
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Crary Science and Engineering Laboratory
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC) research group at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Space Science and Engineering Center supports the various National Science Foundation Grantee's in the United States Antarctic Program with weather and remote sensing data. The AMRC offices in the Crary Laboratory at McMurdo Station and at the University of Wisconsin collect and archive various satellite and weather data. This data is available upon request. AMRC provides users at McMurdo Station access to weather and remotely sensed data in near real time via the Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) and the Multi-source EnviRonmental data dispLay for INternet archives (MERLIN) software packages. Users can analyze data at their home institutions since the MERLIN software is freeware.
McIDAS and MERLIN are versatile computer-based systems for organizing, manipulating, and integrating Antarctic environmental data. They capture the flow of meteorological information from polar orbiting satellites, automatic weather stations, operational synoptic station observations, and research project data as well as receiving environmental data products, from outside Antarctica. They also serve as a repository for existing archived data bases. These systems automatically register, calibrate, and locate (by geographical coordinates) the ingested information and lets a user sectorize, false cole, enhance, stretch brightness values, add overlays, and loop data. These functions are keyed to synoptic meteorological research as well as support for other science research and education.
The AMRC offices collect the following data to use and display at the Crary Laboratory:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) passes over Antarctica.
- Antarctic Composites from the GOES (US), GMS (Japan), Meteosat (Europe), and POES (US) weather satellites over the Southern Hemisphere.
- Synoptic Observations.
- Radiosonde Observations.
- Automatic Weather Station (AWS) Observations.
- National Meteorological Center's (NMC) Medium Range Forecast Model (MRF) Analyses for use over Antarctica.
The NOAA POES passes and the AWS data are archived on tape for scientists and educators to request for study at a later time. The AMRC office at the University of Wisconsin collects and archives the Antarctic Composite, NOAA POES images south of 40 degrees south latitude, and the NMC MRF model output.
If you would like to request data from AMRC and/or the MERLIN software, please feel free to contact the AMRC offices at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Space Science and Engineering Center at amrc@ssec.wisc.edu.
Freely available data on the Internet from AMRC/SSEC:
ANONYMOUS FTP (File
Transfer Protocol):
ftp://ftp.ssec.wisc.edu/gopher/amrc.d or simply ftp to ssec.wisc.edu
User: anonymous
Password: Your e-mail address
The antarctic data can be found in: /gopher/amrc.d/antarctica_images.d
GOPHER:
The gopher address for teh Antarctic Meteorology Research Center:
gopher://gopher.ssec.wisc.edu/11/amrc.d
or
gopher to ssec.wisc.edu and select "Antarctic Meteorology Research Center Items."
WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW):
Connect to the SSEC home page: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu
The realtime Antarctic Composites can be found in the link "realtime data" or simply connect to the address: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/index.html
The forthcoming AMRC homepage will include composites, access to the AMRC POES inventory, the ability to order POES data over Antarctica, realtime displays of Antarctic weather, and more.
