Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica
Between 18 January 1988 and 3 June 1989, an automatic weather station recorded 13 different weather parameters every 3 h on a blue-ice area located in Scharffenbergbotnen, a large cirque in central Heimefrontfjella 300 km from the Weddell Sea coast. The first part of the paper reports on annual and...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1995
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102095000575 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102095000575 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0954102095000575 2024-03-03T08:38:53+00:00 Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica Jonsson, Stig 1995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102095000575 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102095000575 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Antarctic Science volume 7, issue 4, page 409-420 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 Geology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography journal-article 1995 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102095000575 2024-02-08T08:37:26Z Between 18 January 1988 and 3 June 1989, an automatic weather station recorded 13 different weather parameters every 3 h on a blue-ice area located in Scharffenbergbotnen, a large cirque in central Heimefrontfjella 300 km from the Weddell Sea coast. The first part of the paper reports on annual and monthly data regarding air temperature, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction, and a comparison is also made with corresponding data from the Neumayer and Halley stations. The second part deals mainly with winter (i.e. April–September) conditions in Scharffenbergbotnen. They seem, at least during 1988–89, to have been characterized by a large-scale (30–40 days) and, superimposed on the large-scale, a small-scale (3–4 days) co-variation of air temperature, air pressure and wind speed. The large-scale variation was earlier found to be synoptically forced. This paper shows that synoptic forcing exists also on smaller time scales. Pools of cold, stagnant air are regularly formed in the cirque only to be blown away by katabatic winds triggered by small variations in the synoptic pressure field. When this happens the air temperature increases by more than 20°C and the wind direction swings from east towards south-east. When low pressures dominate in the eastern part of the Weddell Sea, the katabatic winds become very strong, but weaker wind pulses also take place when the synoptic pressure gradient is directed towards the north-east. It therefore seems as if these very regular katabatic events are forced both by synoptic-scale pressure gradients and gradients due to the sloped inversion. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Science Antarctica East Antarctica Weddell Sea Cambridge University Press Weddell Sea East Antarctica Neumayer Weddell Heimefrontfjella ENVELOPE(-11.000,-11.000,-74.667,-74.667) Scharffenbergbotnen ENVELOPE(-11.092,-11.092,-74.575,-74.575) Antarctic Science 7 4 409 420 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
Geology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Geology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography Jonsson, Stig Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Geology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Oceanography |
description |
Between 18 January 1988 and 3 June 1989, an automatic weather station recorded 13 different weather parameters every 3 h on a blue-ice area located in Scharffenbergbotnen, a large cirque in central Heimefrontfjella 300 km from the Weddell Sea coast. The first part of the paper reports on annual and monthly data regarding air temperature, air pressure, wind speed and wind direction, and a comparison is also made with corresponding data from the Neumayer and Halley stations. The second part deals mainly with winter (i.e. April–September) conditions in Scharffenbergbotnen. They seem, at least during 1988–89, to have been characterized by a large-scale (30–40 days) and, superimposed on the large-scale, a small-scale (3–4 days) co-variation of air temperature, air pressure and wind speed. The large-scale variation was earlier found to be synoptically forced. This paper shows that synoptic forcing exists also on smaller time scales. Pools of cold, stagnant air are regularly formed in the cirque only to be blown away by katabatic winds triggered by small variations in the synoptic pressure field. When this happens the air temperature increases by more than 20°C and the wind direction swings from east towards south-east. When low pressures dominate in the eastern part of the Weddell Sea, the katabatic winds become very strong, but weaker wind pulses also take place when the synoptic pressure gradient is directed towards the north-east. It therefore seems as if these very regular katabatic events are forced both by synoptic-scale pressure gradients and gradients due to the sloped inversion. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jonsson, Stig |
author_facet |
Jonsson, Stig |
author_sort |
Jonsson, Stig |
title |
Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica |
title_short |
Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica |
title_full |
Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of East Antarctica |
title_sort |
synoptic forcing of wind and temperature in a large cirque 300 km from the coast of east antarctica |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
1995 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102095000575 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0954102095000575 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-11.000,-11.000,-74.667,-74.667) ENVELOPE(-11.092,-11.092,-74.575,-74.575) |
geographic |
Weddell Sea East Antarctica Neumayer Weddell Heimefrontfjella Scharffenbergbotnen |
geographic_facet |
Weddell Sea East Antarctica Neumayer Weddell Heimefrontfjella Scharffenbergbotnen |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Science Antarctica East Antarctica Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Science Antarctica East Antarctica Weddell Sea |
op_source |
Antarctic Science volume 7, issue 4, page 409-420 ISSN 0954-1020 1365-2079 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954102095000575 |
container_title |
Antarctic Science |
container_volume |
7 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
409 |
op_container_end_page |
420 |
_version_ |
1792507371649499136 |