REVIEWS OF GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 26, NO. 1, PAGES 41-43, FEBRUARY 1988 Atmospheric Sciences in Antarctica JOHN W. MERIWETHER, JR. Space PhysicsResearch Laboratory, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The Antarctic is an interesting land that has become the focus of much attention in the last decade. Its undisturbed geological recorddating backto the lastinterglacial period,a locale with seasand lakes populated with interesting organ- isms, a land with beautiful twilights and lovely cirrus and stratosphericcloud formations, a whole continent dedicated by international treaty to scientificresearch--these factors provide good reasons for the renewed interest. A recent review by We!let et al. [1987] explores in more detail the many scientific ideas that make Antarctica an attractive laboratory. Studies relating to sundry aspects of the Earth's geosphere-biosphere system draw scientistsfrom the whole spectrumof scientificdisciplines. As a consequence of the productive efforts of active scientists and the positive advantages of scientificwork in the Antarctic, a need for topical reviews that summarizethe gamut of activity relating to the recent researchin Antarctica arises. This is particularly true for the area of atmospheric sciences, which is an interdisciplinary field with many strands of specialization. The last major seriesof reviews in this area was published in 1978, and since that time much new work in fields quite diverse from those summarizedby Lanzerotti and Parks [1978] has been done. This experience is hardly new. Ever since the International Geophysical Year (IGY), when the level of scientific researchfundingfor the Antarctic increasedsubstantially,the march of scientific progress produced by Antarctic-based scientists over the intervening 30 years has been inexorable. Questions hardly conceivedof in the IGY period invoking Antarctic evidence and data have become critical issues in numerous fields of science. The purposeof this sequence of reviews in the Reviews of Geophysics is to fulfill this need for assessmentand evalua- tion by bringingtogetherin one place reviews of the current research work in atmospheric science in the Antarctic by American atmospheric scientists. This series summarizes and updatesour present knowledgein regard to a variety of topics in atmospheric sciences that benefited especially from the ground-based applicationof scientific instrumentation in the Antarctic. The writers have not tried to treat in extensive detail the particular area of atmospheric science under review but rather provide a synoptical overview specific to the ground-basedwork in the Antarctic. It is meant for these papersto provide the opportunityfor a typical geophysicist to become familiar with the questions and issues of a particularfield. Once the seriesis completed,these articles will be reprinted by the American Geophysical Union as a separate volume. Convenient access to relatively updated descriptions of the American Antarctic research in atmo- spheric science will thus be made available. Copyright 1988 by the American Geophysical Union. Paper number 8R0081. 8755-1209/88/008R-0081 $05.00 One of the fruits of these research summaries of the current activity in the Antarctic is the renewed appreciation of the role of scientific instrumentation in scientific research. Much of the ground-based scientific work in the Antarctic has resulted from the application of instrumentation devel- oped for use elsewhere and adapted for the Antarctic. The value of these measurementsstemsfrom the unique location and the integration of these results in the overall picture of geophysics. However, these measurementsin the Antarctic environment may require extensive reworking of the tech- nique and the instrument in order to optimize the acquisition of accurate data. An example of this may be found in the study of tropospheric aerosols reviewed by Shaw [this issue]. The passage of time, however, has seen instrumentation of increasingly greater complexity designed specifically for application in the Antarctic. Automated monitoring stations have been placed at numeroussitesthroughoutthe continent with data retrieved throughtransmission to satellites passing overhead. Antenna structures many miles long have been set in place at Siple Station to transmit low-frequency radiation into the magnetosphere. A major contribution to the studyof the Antarctic Stratospheric ozone depletion was the new application of a ground-based remote sensingoptical tech- nique to achieve the detectionof OC 10 in the lunar absorp- tion spectrum [see Solomon, this issue]. Research activities of great complexity never contemplatedin the early days of the IGY are now routinely conducted and satisfactorily completed. The reviews in this special series show how our knowledge and understanding of the Earth's atmosphere have increased greatly as a consequenceof this application of modern technology in the Antarctic. While the emphasis in this series has been placed on the summary and reporting of American research activity pri- marily funded by the National Science Foundation, other funding agencies have contributed considerable research support over the years to the Antarctic scientific work. Not only that, it is to be noted that scientific research in the Antarctic is an international enterprise. Scientists amongthe many operatingstationsin the Antarctic continually visit one another throughoutthe year. On occasionthey will team up as a part of a special effort. As an example, only recently, in the fall of 1987, more than 150 scientists from numerous countries around the world funded by a host of research funding agencieswere engagedin the effort to observe and understand the formation of the stratospheric ozone hole. Hence it is clear that the assembly of reports brought together in this series of reviews will not totally reveal all of the contributions made to atmospheric science by ground- based work in the Antarctic. Furthermore, this concept neglects the important contri- butions made in many areas by observations and measure- ments made from the satellite platform. Ground-based ob- servations, however, represent a notable starting point. 41