Palmer LTER Site Flash (Jul95) - Karen Baker, PAL datamanager

In General: The fourth field season from September94 to March95 
continued the weekly sampling program at Palmer Station. The lterjan95 
cruise was the third annual January cruise providing an interannual 
regional view that complements the seasonal work done in 1993. A 
Palmer LTER PI Meeting in May began planning for our renewal proposal.

Information Availability: More consideration is being given to online 
presentation of information as this becomes an established and expected 
medium of communication. The web homepage established in February of 1994 
is being augmented with links to related historical sites.  Weather
information has been specifically made available online.  Data online 
for Palmer LTER investigators is increasing as issues of documentation, 
quality assessment and publication are addressed.  

Weather: Because of the importance to specific current site research 
questions and because of the importance in general for ecology at a 
long-term site, a number of issues pertaining to Palmer station weather 
and climate have been addressed over the last year.  These efforts are ongoing. 
Historical weather records have been collected and analyzed for presentation 
in a chapter for the site's synthesis volume 'Foundations for Ecological 
Research West of the Antarctic Peninsula' to be published before the end of 
this year.  A second automatic weather station (AWS) has been installed 90 km 
off shore from the first AWS installed near Palmer station.  Both battery
malfunctions as well as connector problems were identified and corrected
due to a weekly monitoring program established to insure data quality.
The value of overlapping weather measurements as a method of quality
assurance using the Palmer operations and the AWS weather measurements
has been documented in an Antarctic Journal Article.

Field: Co-ordination with the Antarctic Support Associates for field 
logistics, communications needs and electronic technical issues
continues through participation with both the McMurdo Users Working 
Group and the Antarctic Communications and Computers Working Group. 
The possibility of developing a new satellite link to Palmer exists
and will have tremendous impact on our field efforts if successful.  
Emphasis on display of data while in the field continues as does 
consideration of use of GIS software for field data visualization.

Documentation: An increasing amount of time is dedicated to online 
participant lists, event sampling logs, sampling maps, bibliographic 
database, calendar and contributions to the Palmer monthly electronic 
agenda.  Species list compilation has begun in response the intersite work.  
Work on procedure manuals continues.  Some draft versions on field site 
computers exist and development is ongoing in preparation for the fifth 
field season and this season's lterjan96 annual cruise.