A Polar Climate Iteration?

The antarctic continental (cA) air mass is rarely displaced from the South Polar Plateau, but it is frequently modified by exchange with Antarctic maritime (mA) air advected from the ice shelves or frozen seas or with polar maritime (mP) air advected from the Southern Ocean. Because the cA air mass...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hogan, A., Riley, D., Murphey, B. B., Barnard, S. C., Samson, J. A.
Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1992
Subjects:
Geography
Snow
Ice and Permafrost
Meteorology
*AEROSOLS
*AIR
*MASS
*POLAR REGIONS
*CLIMATE
*ITERATIONS
ATMOSPHERES
EXCHANGE
GLOBAL
ICE
MEAN
METEOROLOGICAL DATA
OCEANS
PARTICLES
PLATEAUS
REDUCTION
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SODIUM
STATICS
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE
VARIATIONS
VELOCITY
WIND
WINTER
SYMPOSIA
ADVECTION
ANTARCTIC REGIONS
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
South Pole
Polar Plateau
South Polar Plateau
Antarc*
Ice
Ice Shelves
permafrost
South pole
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADP007356
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADP007356
Description
Summary:The antarctic continental (cA) air mass is rarely displaced from the South Polar Plateau, but it is frequently modified by exchange with Antarctic maritime (mA) air advected from the ice shelves or frozen seas or with polar maritime (mP) air advected from the Southern Ocean. Because the cA air mass resides over an uninhabited and relatively static ice-covered surface, the concentration of aerosol particles in this unique air mass may reflect aerosol variation in the global atmosphere. A continuous series of surface observations began at South Pole in 1974 and have continued to the present. Although a large seasonal variation in aerosol concentration is present, little year-to-year variation in mean seasonal aerosol concentration occurred prior to 1982. During the mid-1980s, a consistent diminution of mean annual aerosol concentration was observed, and a concurrent reduction in sodium concentration in snow and firn was reported. The decrease in aerosol concentration was greatest in late winter and spring, concurrent with decreases in mean air temperature and mean wind speed. This paper describes concurrent aerosol and meteorological data collected at South Pole from 1974 through 1987 and presents several analyses attempting to verify if these changes do reflect a persistent variation in the properties of the cA air mass.

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