Climate and climate change in the sub-Antarctic

Meteorologically, the sub-Antarctic is sparsely represented in the climate literature. Drawing on a variety of sources that are either directly or indirectly linked to the sub-Antarctic, an overview of the climate of the sub-Antarctic is presented, In doing so, we note that, for the most part, the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
Main Authors: Pendlebury, S, Barnes-Keoghan, IP
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2007
Subjects:
RST
Online Access:https://eprints.utas.edu.au/13341/
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/13341/4/2007_Pendlebury_climate.pdf
Description
Summary:Meteorologically, the sub-Antarctic is sparsely represented in the climate literature. Drawing on a variety of sources that are either directly or indirectly linked to the sub-Antarctic, an overview of the climate of the sub-Antarctic is presented, In doing so, we note that, for the most part, the sub-Antarctic climate is more or less fixed to mean monthly air temperatures between -5C and +15C. Brief discussion explores the roles of teleconnections that appear to affect the sub-Antarctic climate, focusing on the Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM). We report on meteorological evidence of climate change that has occurred in the recent history of the sub-Antarctic and note that rainfall dimate-change signals from Marion and Macquarie islands are consistent with trends associated with the SAM index. We report that modelling suggests that the climate of the sub-Antarctic will continue to change through the twenty-first century in line with twentieth-century trends. The need for more research into the climate of the sub-Antarctic, underpinned by a robust databank of quality controlled sub-Antarctic meteorological data, is noted.