West Antarctica is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, and the warming of this ice sheet has strong links to global sea level rise. However, there currently is no comprehensive explanation for this warming and there have been only limited atmospheric measurements conducted in this region over the last several decades.
In December of 2015, the ARM Mobile Facility 2 (AMF2) was deployed to Antarctica in an effort to bring state-of-the-art measurements to this region with a focus on mixed-phase clouds and aerosols and their impact on the radiation budget. Two sites were chosen: the main facility was installed at McMurdo Station on the Ross Ice Shelf for one year of measurements, and a supplemental site was installed in the interior of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) for measurements during the austral summer.
This presentation focuses on the operations at these sites to highlight the instruments and the logistics required to collect these advanced measurements in this challenging and remote location.
