Real-Time Antarctic MM5 Mesoscale Model Forecasts from the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS)

In support of flight operations and forecasters in Antarctica, we (NCAR MMM) are running the MM5 on a set of 90-km, 30-km, 10-km, and 3.3-km grids over Antarctica twice daily. Under sponsorship from NSF Office of Polar Programs and in collaboration with the Byrd Polar Research Center of Ohio State University these experimental real-time forecasts have been tailored to the needs of the forecasters at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. AMPS employs the Polar MM5, a version of the MM5 (currently V3.4) developed at the Byrd Polar Research Center. The Polar MM5 contains a number of modifications to better represent processes in the polar troposphere. We also continue to run global 5-day MM5 forecasts that cover Antarctica. Product animations are available, but may be large. All forecasts are produced on a 32-processor Compaq ES40 cluster located at NCAR. AMPS and its hardware are supported by the National Science Foundation. More Information and access data: http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/rt/amps/ [Summary Extracted from the NCAR MMM AMPS Homepage]