A downward developing mesoscale cyclone over the Ross Ice Shelf during Winter

• Main Authors: Bromwich, David H., Carrasco, Jorge F., Turner, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers 1996
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; West Antarctica; Ross Ice Shelf; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/514935/

A case of midtropospheric mesoscale cyclone formation and downward development adjacent to and over the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica during May 1988 is presented. This event involved atmospheric phenomena over a wide range of spatial scales from the meso to the synoptic. The mesoscale vortex apparently developed within a middle-level short-wave trough. Warm air advection associated with a synoptic-scale front, which developed upwind from the axis of a blocking ridge located over the Antarctic Peninsula and which traveled westward across West Antarctica, created a strong temperature gradient (baroclinic zone) at low-levels at the northern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The atmosphere below the initially midtropospheric mesoscale vortex was destablized by the warm air advection, inducing its downward development.