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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 115,
D14107,
14 PP., 2010
doi:10.1029/2009JD013410
Characteristics of high-precipitation events in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica
Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, Earth System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, Earth System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, Earth System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Alfred-Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Department of Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya, Japan
High-resolution Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System archive data were used to investigate high-precipitation events at the deep ice core drilling site Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, during the period 2001–2006. The precipitation is found to be highly episodic, with, on average, approximately eight high-precipitation events per year that can bring more than half of the total annual accumulation. The duration of the events varies between 1 day and about 1 week. On most days in the remaining time of the year, however, daily precipitation sums are about one order of magnitude smaller than that for the high-precipitation events. Synoptic weather patterns causing these events were directly connected to frontal systems of cyclones in only 20% of the 51 investigated cases. The majority of the events occurred in connection with (blocking) anticyclones and correspondingly amplified Rossby waves, which lead to advection of warm, moist air from relatively low latitudes. Possible changes in the seasonality and frequency of these events in a different climate can lead to a bias in ice core properties and might also strongly influence the mass balance of the Antarctic continent and thus global sea level change.
Received 19 October 2009; accepted 26 February 2010; published 21 July 2010.
Citation: (2010), Characteristics of high-precipitation events in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D14107, doi:10.1029/2009JD013410.
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