The Antarctic First Regional Observing Study of the Troposphere (FROST) Project

An account is given of the Antarctic First Regional Observing Study of the Troposphere (FROST) project, which has been organized by the Physics and Chemistry of the Atmosphere Group of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. The goals of FROST are to study the meteorology of the Antarctic, to determine the strengths and weaknesses of operational analyses and forecasts over the continent and in the surrounding ocean areas, and to assess the value of new forms of satellite data that are becoming available. FROST is based around three one-month Special Observing Periods (SOPs) - July 1994, 16 October-15 November 1994, and January 1995 for which comprehensive datasets have been established of model fields and in situ and satellite observations. High quality manual surface and upper-air analyses are being prepared for these periods to determine the extent to which non-Global Telecommunications System data can improve the interpretation of the synoptic situation. Over the ocean areas during SOP-1, incorporation of the late data resulted only in a limited improvement in the analyses, indicating that the models are correctly analyzing most of the major weather systems. Over the continent, the production of 500-hPa heights from the automatic weather station data greatly helped in the analysis process. The lack of data around west Antarctica was a major handicap in the analysis process. The rms errors in the forecasts of 500-hPa height for the Antarctic were about 20% greater than those for midlatitude areas. The forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts were the most accurate of those received.