Ross Island Region
The AMRDC is working with the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) on using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model output from the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS), along with data from the NIWC Automatic Weather Station (AWS) network in the Ross Island region, to compare realtime observations to model output. The AMRDC has developed a procedure that compares the two. Maps of data comparisons are created to show the NIWC AWS observation, the forecast model output, and their difference. Maps are also created using the UW AWS network realtime observational data.
WRF model output from AMPS for the 2.67-km Ross Sea grid (grid 3) are used. Model initialization times are 00 and 12 UTC each day, and grid 3 offers hourly forecast output out to 39 hours. The most recent 12- to 23-hour model output are used for this comparison. NIWC and UW AWS observations at the top of the hour are compared with the corresponding model output.