This is a three-year project to maintain and augment as necessary, the network of approximately fifty automatic weather stations established on the antarctic continent and on several surrounding islands. These weather stations measure surface wind, pressure, temperature, humidity, and in some instances other atmospheric variables, such as snow accumulation and incident solar radiation, and report these via satellite to a number of ground stations. The data are used for operational weather forecasting in support of the United States Antarctic program, for global forecasting through the WMO Global Telecommunications System, for climatological records, and for research purposes. The AWS network, which began as a small-scale program in 1980, has been extremely reliable and has proven indispensable for both forecasting and research purposes.
