TY - JOUR
T1 - Temperature and wind climate of the Antarctic Peninsula as simulated by a high-resolution Regional Atmospheric Climate Model
AU - Van Wessem, Jan Melchior
AU - Reijmer, Carleen H.
AU - Van De Berg, Willem Jan
AU - Van Den Broeke, Michiel R.
AU - Cook, Alison J.
AU - Van Ulft, Lambertus H.
AU - Van Meijgaard, Erik
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Meteorological Society.
Author was not affiliated to SAMS at the time of publication
PY - 2015/9/15
Y1 - 2015/9/15
N2 - The latest polar version of the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2.3) has been applied to the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). In this study, the authors present results of a climate run at 5.5 km for the period 1979-2013, in which RACMO2.3 is forced by ERA-Interim atmospheric and ocean surface fields, using an updated AP surface topography. The model results are evaluated with near-surface temperature and wind measurements from 12 manned and automatic weather stations and vertical profiles from balloon soundings made at three stations. The seasonal cycle of near-surface temperature and wind is simulated well, with most biases still related to the limited model resolution. High-resolution climate maps of temperature and wind showing that the AP climate exhibits large spatial variability are discussed. Over the steep and high mountains of the northern AP, large west-to-east climate gradients exist, while over the gentle southern AP mountains the near-surface climate is dominated by katabatic winds. Over the flat ice shelves, where katabatic wind forcing is weak, interannual variability in temperature is largest. Finally, decadal trends of temperature and wind are presented, and it is shown that recently there has been distinct warming over the northwestern AP and cooling over the rest of the AP, related to changes in sea ice cover.
AB - The latest polar version of the Regional Atmospheric Climate Model (RACMO2.3) has been applied to the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). In this study, the authors present results of a climate run at 5.5 km for the period 1979-2013, in which RACMO2.3 is forced by ERA-Interim atmospheric and ocean surface fields, using an updated AP surface topography. The model results are evaluated with near-surface temperature and wind measurements from 12 manned and automatic weather stations and vertical profiles from balloon soundings made at three stations. The seasonal cycle of near-surface temperature and wind is simulated well, with most biases still related to the limited model resolution. High-resolution climate maps of temperature and wind showing that the AP climate exhibits large spatial variability are discussed. Over the steep and high mountains of the northern AP, large west-to-east climate gradients exist, while over the gentle southern AP mountains the near-surface climate is dominated by katabatic winds. Over the flat ice shelves, where katabatic wind forcing is weak, interannual variability in temperature is largest. Finally, decadal trends of temperature and wind are presented, and it is shown that recently there has been distinct warming over the northwestern AP and cooling over the rest of the AP, related to changes in sea ice cover.
KW - Antarctica
KW - Climatology
KW - Ice sheets
KW - Radiosonde observations
KW - Regional models
KW - Surface observations
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U2 - 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0060.1
DO - 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0060.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84956940543
SN - 0894-8755
VL - 28
SP - 7306
EP - 7326
JO - Journal of Climate
JF - Journal of Climate
IS - 18
ER -