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

• 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

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.