This award will provide funds to deploy an array of seven automatic weather stations (AWS) in the region to the east and south of Ross Island, Antarctica, in order to characterize the surface environment surrounding the major air flow corridors on the Ross Ice Shelf. These air streams have been identified as the primary corridor for the transport of mass, heat, and momentum between Antarctica and subpolar latitudes. An understanding of the basic physical characteristics of these air streams and their modulation by the frequent cyclonic activity in the Ross Sea to the north is necessary to advance our capabilities in forecasting weather in the Ross Island and McMurdo area. Previous work has established the Ross Sea region as critically important in the connection of Antarctic processes to the rest of the globe on a variety of time scales. This two-year study will include AWS deployment, analysis of existing data sets and the initiation of model simulations, and will form one of the bases of a planned Ross Island Meteorological Experiment.
