Reconstruction of the historical climate of the Southern Ocean from whaling ships’ logbooks ...
The estimated century-long trends in the Southern Ocean climate are uncertain, as the data used to estimate these changes are relatively short (~60 years) compared to possible long-term climate variability found in the region. Due to the lack of longer land-based meteorological records, logbooks of...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
2020
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| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.55560 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/308474 |
| Summary: | The estimated century-long trends in the Southern Ocean climate are uncertain, as the data used to estimate these changes are relatively short (~60 years) compared to possible long-term climate variability found in the region. Due to the lack of longer land-based meteorological records, logbooks of Christian Salvesen Whaling Company’s whaling ships operating in the Southern Ocean in the 1930s and 1950s are investigated in this thesis. A historical climate dataset is produced from the meteorological observations from the whaling logbooks. The mean sea-level pressure (MSLP) changes across the Southern Ocean diverge: for example, in the northern reaches (55°S latitudinal band) MSLP in the historical period (the 1930s and 1950s) is found to be lower than modern climatology (1981-2010). It is in contrast to the southern reaches (65°S latitudinal band) where MSLP is found to be decreasing over the same period. A historical Southern Annular Mode (SAM) index from 1930-1960 is generated from the whaling dataset, and ... |
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