The FROST Special Observing Periods (SOPs)

The three one-month SOPs were:

July 1994

The Austral winter period. The first of the SOPs and the one that has been studies most intensively so far. Sea ice is fairly extensive at this time of year and there are no research vessels operating in Antarctic waters. With the lack of solar radiation, only infra-red satellite imagery was available from the operational NOAA polar orbiting meteorological satellites.

16 October to 15 November 1994

This period was selected to cover the period of breakdown of the Antarctic ozone hole.

January 1995

The summer SOP. During this month many summer-only research stations were operating across the Antarctic and meteorological observations were also available from research vessels carrying out oceanographic cruises around the continent or re-supplying the stations. With the lack of sea ice it was also possible to derive many valuable meteorological fields, such as precipitation rate, over the ice-free ocean areas.