Assessment of surface pressure between Zhongshan and Dome A in East Antarctica from different meteorological reanalyses

The accuracy of daily mean surface pressure from five meteorological reanalysesis assessed against in situ observations from automatic weather stations inEast Antarctica for 2005 to 2008. The in situ observations are from Zhongshan,LGB69, EAGLE, and Dome A. The five reanalyses all explain more than...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research
Main Authors: Xie, A, Allison, I, Xiao, C, Wang, S, Ren, J, Qin, D
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Inst Arctic Alpine Res 2014
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Atmospheric Sciences
Meteorology
Antarctic
East Antarctic Ice Sheet
East Antarctica
The Antarctic
Zhongshan
Antarc*
Antarctic and Alpine Research
Antarctica
Arctic
Ice Sheet
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1657/1938-4246-46.3.669
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/100642
Description
Summary:The accuracy of daily mean surface pressure from five meteorological reanalysesis assessed against in situ observations from automatic weather stations inEast Antarctica for 2005 to 2008. The in situ observations are from Zhongshan,LGB69, EAGLE, and Dome A. The five reanalyses all explain more than 87%of the average variance and have annual root mean square errors between 15 hPaand 45 hPa. The ERA Interim reanalysis performs best against both criteria. TheNCEP-1, NCEP-2, and 20CRv2 reanalyses have negative biases of 29.7 hPa,25.9 hPa, and 11.1 hPa, respectively, while ERA Interim and JCDAS have positivebiases of 4.9 hPa and 14.9 hPa. The reanalyses do not show obvious seasonaldifferences. The errors generally tend to decrease from the coast to the interiorof the East Antarctic ice sheet, although there are regional differences betweenthe performance of the different reanalyses. ERA Interim is superior to otherreanalyses, probably because of its 4D assimilation scheme, which is stronglyguided by satellite observations. The three NCEP reanalyses perform worst; theirassimilation scheme is more constrained by limited observations and 20CRv2has less input data, assimilating only surface pressure observations. Despite deficienciesand limitations, the reanalyses are still powerful tools for climate studiesin the Antarctic region. However, more in situ observations are required, especiallyfrom the vast interior of Antarctica.

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