What is an AMOMFW?
Since the field season has been over for several months I dropped into Madison, WI to find out what the scientists have been doing. When do they look at their data, analyze what happened in the field, plan the next field season and communicate with other scientists about their projects. Actually I didn't just drop in, they invited me to attend and give a presentation at AMOMFW.
About 40 scientists from around the world attended the annual AMOMFW. There were researchers from Japan, Korea, England, Germany, Belgium, France, Australia, and the USA. For four days, presentations were given all day long, including a presentation which I gave about my PolarTREC experience. After the formal meetings we often got together for informal discussions. The scientists were very interested in the opportunity for teachers in PolarTREC and in getting teachers involved in science. Some countries already have outreach programs but others do not. Many of the countries are facing many of the same science education issues that we have here in the States. One scientist from Belgium specifically asked to stay in touch because he would like to get teachers involved in Antarctic science in his country.
During my visit to Madison this past week, not only did I get to learn some of what the scientists do when they are not in the field, I also was able to communicate to a large group of scientists how important outreach is to teachers.
On Monday there were presentations by all of the groups who have automated weather stations on the continent. The presentations were kind of like advanced science fair discussions. With explanations of what they did, what worked and future plans for investigation. On Tuesday, computer modelers discussed various computer models that are used to help predict the weather. Wednesday and Thursday the presentations were focused on actually forecasting the weather in Antarctica.
It was a great week, listening and talking with researchers from all over the world at AMOMFW and I very much want to thank PolarTREC for providing the means for me to attend and the UW-Madison team for inviting me.
Oh.......... and so what is an AMOMFW... Antarctic Meteorological Observation, Modeling, and Forecasting Workshop. You can see the agenda and read abstracts for the presentations by clicking above.
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