Advances in forecasting systems at the Antarctic Meteorological Centre, Casey

Abstract

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has been providing weather services for Australian Antarctic expeditions since the first expedition of 1947 and the forecasting services have been gradually evolving over the decades. However, with the advent of high bandwidth communications into Antarctica in the early 1990s there has been, for the first time, access to high-resolution satellite imagery, numerical model data and global observational datasets. Over the past seven years locally designed and developed forecast systems have matured and now provide the Antarctic forecaster with a comprehensive suite of systems to assist in the timely and accurate provision of aviation, marine and terrestrial forecasts. The ease with which these data may be manipulated, displayed and interpreted is expected to have a positive impact on the quality of forecasts provided to the Antarctic user.