Steve has worked for BAS for the last 30 years. He overwintered at Halley research station in 1991 and has returned to Antarctica 10 times since for Antarctic summer seasons. He is currently head of meteorology and ozone monitoring (MOM) at BAS which is responsible for its operational meteorology program. He is actively involved with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and sits on the panel of experts on polar and high mountain observations, research and services and chairs the Antarctic Task Team with this group. He was awarded a Polar Medal in 2012 for services in the Antarctic which he received from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Colwell, S., & Lu, H. (2023). Continuous Subdaily Meteorological Records at Signy Station, the South Orkney Islands 1947 – 1994 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/d74b142c-7981-4a6a-9321-cf904a5668e6
Pritchard, H., Farinotti, D., & Colwell, S. (2021). Time series of water pressure, water temperature and ground temperature from lakes Orajarvi (Finland), and Tomasee and Silsersee (Switzerland) from winters 2018-2021 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/170fc6fa-9878-43fc-9abd-e6196bad60a2
Colwell, S. (2020). Brunt Ice Shelf AWS data for 2015 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/4e963d9b-da5d-43d5-a605-fc44ead63d97
Colwell, S. (2013). UK Antarctic Meterological Surface Data (Version “1.0”) [Data set]. Polar Data Centre; British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council; Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK.. https://doi.org/10.5285/569d53fb-9b90-47a6-b3ca-26306e696706
READER (REference Antarctic Data for Environmental Research) is a project of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR http://www.scar.org/) and has the goal of creating a high quality, long term dataset of mean surface and upper air meteorological measurements from in-situ Antarctic observing systems.
Long-term meteorological and ozone observations and data help determine the causes of climate change in the polar regions.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has today (1 July 2021) recognised a new record high temperature for the Antarctic continent of 18.3° Celsius on 6 February 2020 at the Esperanza […]
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recognized a temperature of -69.6°C (-93.3°F) at an automatic weather station in Greenland on 22 December 1991 as the coldest ever recorded in the […]
This instrument is designed to measure the amount of precipitation. It is based on a rain gauge but has been adapted to work in low temperatures with solid precipitation.
SAOZ measures sunlight scattered from the overhead sky in a way that allows us to calculate how much of the atmospheric gases ozone and nitrogen dioxide the light has passed through on its journey.
At the base of the met tower is a white box housing a laser. It fires a beam straight up and measures the time delay on the return beam to calculate the height of the clouds that reflect it.
The sky radiometer is an instrument that measures the extent to which light from the Sun is scattered as it travels through the Earth’s atmosphere. This allows us to calculate the size and density of the particles that are scattering the light.
Weather balloons are launched four times a week and a device called a radiosonde hangs beneath the helium-filled balloon and measures temperature, pressure and humidity. From GPS we can also calculate wind speed and direction. Measurements are taken every 2 seconds and transmitted back to base.
The meteorological data are use in real time for aircraft operation and also sent to the UK Met Office for distribution on the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) to be used in forecast models.
SAOZ measures sunlight scattered from the overhead sky in a way that allows us to calculate how much of the atmospheric gases ozone and nitrogen dioxide the light has passed through on its journey.
The Dobson spectrophotometer measures the amount of column ozone above the measurement site.
On the roof of the science module is a white box housing a laser. It fires a beam straight up and measures the time delay on the return beam to calculate the height of the clouds that reflect it.
The sky radiometer is an instrument that measures the extent to which light from the Sun is scattered as it travels through the Earth’s atmosphere. This allows us to calculate the size and density of the particles that are scattering the light.
The meteorological data are use in real time for aircraft operation and also sent to the UK Met Office for distribution on the Global Telecommunication System (GTS) to be used in forecast models.
On 30th January 1982, a record high temperature of +19.8°C was measured at Signy Research Station – a record for any station south of 60°S. In this paper, we examined […]
Polar medals awarded to three BAS staff Three British Antarctic Survey staff have been honoured with the Polar Medal. The Queen approved the awards for outstanding achievement and service to […]