AMPS Database

BACKGROUND
The National Science Foundation sponsored the Antarctic Weather Forecasting Workshop at the Byrd Polar Research Center of The Ohio State University in May 2000. As a result of that meeting and trial runs established earlier in the year at OSU which showed the feasibility of real-time mesoscale atmospheric modeling for Antarctica, the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) was implemented in October 2000. AMPS is an experimental system run at the Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology (MMM) Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and dedicated to real-time numerical weather prediction in Antarctica. AMPS employs the Polar MM5, a version of the Pennsylvania State University/NCAR fifth generation mesoscale model optimized for the environment of polar ice sheets by the Polar Meteorology Group of the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University. AMPS is a collaborative effort between NCAR's MMM group and Ohio State. The role of MMM is to run AMPS twice-daily, provide a web interface and model products to the U.S. and international forecasting community, and maintain the model code. The role of Ohio State is to continue development of the model physics and to evaluate the system's performance.

The AMPS forecasts are performed twice-daily on 6 domains ranging in horizontal resolution from 90-km over about 1/2 of the Southern Hemisphere, to 3.3-km over McMurdo, the hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program. The forecasts have been archived at NCAR for several years, and the size of the archive is greater than 6 terrabytes at the time of this writing. This database is intended to make the valuable data from the AMPS archive easily available to the broader Antarctic research community. The data available here are from the most popular AMPS domains. Time series and gridded data are available at 6-hourly and monthly mean temporal resolution. If you have questions or comments, please contact Andy Monaghan.

AMPS is supported by The National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AMPS DATA AND IMAGES

Status Report:As of October 16, 2006, data are available for Domain 2 (All of Antarctica at 30-km; 2003, 2004, 2005), Domain 3 (McMurdo Region at 10-km; 2002), Domain 5 (Ross Island Region at 3.3-km; 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005), and Domain 6 (Antarctic Peninsula Region at 10-km; 2004, 2005). Please check back frequently as other domains will be added soon.

*Note - the data tables that follow link to our http server. The root directory for our http server is http://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/model/modelout/amps/process/. For windows users who want to download lots and lots of files, it may be quicker to log in to our ftp server using the MSDOS prompt (from Start menu, go to "programs", then "accessories", then choose "Command Prompt". Type "ftp polarmet27.mps.ohio-state.edu". username=anonymous, password=youremailaddress. Then go to amps root directory: "cd /pub/model/modelout/amps/process." From here, you will have to know the standard commands to get around and download files - there is a good tutorial here - just substitute our ftp server - polarmet27.mps.ohio-state.edu - for the one they use in the tutorial.) For linux/unix users, use the same anonymous ftp commands described above. We have had some trouble seeing the directory structure with normal ftp, but ncftp works very well.

DOMAIN 2
Horizontal Resolution: 30-km
Coverage: Entire Continent
Time Invariant Fields: Constants File/Description
File Descriptions:
Moisture Files
Flux Files
Surface Files
500 hPa Files

DATA: 2003 Monthly and Annual Means ("6h"=6-hourly data; "mm"=monthly mean data)
Month--> Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Parameter 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm Annual
MOISTURE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
FLUX
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
SURFACE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
500-hPa
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Images - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X X
Data
Availability		 - 100% - 100% - 94% - 100% - 97% - 100% - 90% - 90% - 97% - 94% - 97% - 84% 95%

DATA: 2004 Monthly and Annual Means ("6h"=6-hourly data; "mm"=monthly mean data)
Month--> Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Parameter 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm Annual
MOISTURE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
FLUX
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
SURFACE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
500-hPa
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Images - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X X
Data
Availability		 - 90% - 52% - 87% - 93% - 99% - 54% - 90% - 97% - 90% - 97% - 97% - 100% 87%

DATA: 2005 Monthly and Annual Means ("6h"=6-hourly data; "mm"=monthly mean data)
Month--> Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Parameter 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm Annual
MOISTURE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
FLUX
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
SURFACE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
500-hPa
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Images - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X X
Data
Availability		 - 100% - 100% - 100% - 100% - 97% - 100% - 100% - 97% - 100% - 97% - 100% - 65% 96%

DOMAIN 3
Horizontal Resolution: 10-km
Coverage: McMurdo Region
Time Invariant Fields: Constants File/Description
File Descriptions:
Moisture Files
Flux Files
Surface Files
500 hPa Files

DATA:2002 Monthly and Annual Means ("6h"=6-hourly data; "mm"=monthly mean data)
Month--> Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual
Parameter 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm 6h mm Annual
MOISTURE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
FLUX
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
SURFACE
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
500-hPa
FIELDS		 X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Images - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X - X -