Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000
Climate observations from the McMurdo dry valleys, East Antarctica are presented from a network of seven valley floor automatic meteorological stations during the period 1986 to 2000. Mean annual temperatures ranged from −14.8°C to −30.0°C, depending on the site and period of measurement. Mean annua...
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ftportlandstate:oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:geog_fac-1010 2023-05-15T13:58:46+02:00 Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 Doran, Peter T. McKay, Christopher P. Clow, Gary D. Dana, Gayle L. Fountain, Andrew G. Nylen, Thomas H. Lyons, W. Berry 2002-12-21T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_fac/11 https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geog_fac unknown PDXScholar https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_fac/11 https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geog_fac Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations Climate -- Antarctica -- McMurdo Dry Valleys Geophysics -- Research -- Antarctica Meteorology -- Antarctica -- Observations Environmental Sciences text 2002 ftportlandstate 2022-01-09T19:25:32Z Climate observations from the McMurdo dry valleys, East Antarctica are presented from a network of seven valley floor automatic meteorological stations during the period 1986 to 2000. Mean annual temperatures ranged from −14.8°C to −30.0°C, depending on the site and period of measurement. Mean annual relative humidity is generally highest near the coast. Mean annual wind speed increases with proximity to the polar plateau. Site to site variation in mean annual solar flux and PAR is due to exposure of each station and changes over time are likely related to changes in cloudiness. During the non-summer months, strong katabatic winds are frequent at some sites and infrequent at others, creating large variation in mean annual temperature owing to the warming effect of the winds. Katabatic wind exposure appears to be controlled to a large degree by the presence of colder air in the region that collects at low points and keeps the warm less dense katabatic flow from the ground. The strong influence of katabatic winds makes prediction of relative mean annual temperature based on geographical position (elevation and distance from the coast) alone, not possible. During the summer months, onshore winds dominate and warm as they progress through the valleys creating a strong linear relationship (r² = 0.992) of increasing potential temperature with distance from the coast (0.09°C km⁻¹). In contrast to mean annual temperature, summer temperature lends itself quite well to model predictions, and is used to construct a statistical model for predicting summer dry valley temperatures at unmonitored sites. Text Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Portland State University: PDXScholar East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Polar Plateau ENVELOPE(0.000,0.000,-90.000,-90.000) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Portland State University: PDXScholar |
op_collection_id |
ftportlandstate |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Climate -- Antarctica -- McMurdo Dry Valleys Geophysics -- Research -- Antarctica Meteorology -- Antarctica -- Observations Environmental Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Climate -- Antarctica -- McMurdo Dry Valleys Geophysics -- Research -- Antarctica Meteorology -- Antarctica -- Observations Environmental Sciences Doran, Peter T. McKay, Christopher P. Clow, Gary D. Dana, Gayle L. Fountain, Andrew G. Nylen, Thomas H. Lyons, W. Berry Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 |
topic_facet |
Climate -- Antarctica -- McMurdo Dry Valleys Geophysics -- Research -- Antarctica Meteorology -- Antarctica -- Observations Environmental Sciences |
description |
Climate observations from the McMurdo dry valleys, East Antarctica are presented from a network of seven valley floor automatic meteorological stations during the period 1986 to 2000. Mean annual temperatures ranged from −14.8°C to −30.0°C, depending on the site and period of measurement. Mean annual relative humidity is generally highest near the coast. Mean annual wind speed increases with proximity to the polar plateau. Site to site variation in mean annual solar flux and PAR is due to exposure of each station and changes over time are likely related to changes in cloudiness. During the non-summer months, strong katabatic winds are frequent at some sites and infrequent at others, creating large variation in mean annual temperature owing to the warming effect of the winds. Katabatic wind exposure appears to be controlled to a large degree by the presence of colder air in the region that collects at low points and keeps the warm less dense katabatic flow from the ground. The strong influence of katabatic winds makes prediction of relative mean annual temperature based on geographical position (elevation and distance from the coast) alone, not possible. During the summer months, onshore winds dominate and warm as they progress through the valleys creating a strong linear relationship (r² = 0.992) of increasing potential temperature with distance from the coast (0.09°C km⁻¹). In contrast to mean annual temperature, summer temperature lends itself quite well to model predictions, and is used to construct a statistical model for predicting summer dry valley temperatures at unmonitored sites. |
format |
Text |
author |
Doran, Peter T. McKay, Christopher P. Clow, Gary D. Dana, Gayle L. Fountain, Andrew G. Nylen, Thomas H. Lyons, W. Berry |
author_facet |
Doran, Peter T. McKay, Christopher P. Clow, Gary D. Dana, Gayle L. Fountain, Andrew G. Nylen, Thomas H. Lyons, W. Berry |
author_sort |
Doran, Peter T. |
title |
Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 |
title_short |
Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 |
title_full |
Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 |
title_fullStr |
Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Valley Floor Climate Observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986-2000 |
title_sort |
valley floor climate observations from the mcmurdo dry valleys, antarctica, 1986-2000 |
publisher |
PDXScholar |
publishDate |
2002 |
url |
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_fac/11 https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geog_fac |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(0.000,0.000,-90.000,-90.000) |
geographic |
East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Polar Plateau |
geographic_facet |
East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys Polar Plateau |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica McMurdo Dry Valleys |
op_source |
Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations |
op_relation |
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geog_fac/11 https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=geog_fac |
_version_ |
1766267105658798080 |