Characteristics of surface meteorology at Lindsey Island, Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica from 30 2008 to 2014

Abstract

Research on warming in West Antarctica is important to prognoses and diagnose mass balance change of the ice sheet over the region, which is directly connected to global sea level. A lack of ground based measurements of meteorology across West Antarctica, however, have limited better understanding of how the large area has been influenced by the warming through atmospheric processes and how fast the warming has progressed on the region. An automatic weather station (i.e. AWS) was setup at the Lindsey Island, Amundsen Sea close to the coastal area of West Antarctica in 2008 and has been operated for about seven years. To identify meteorological characteristics near the coastal area, we analyzed the measured temperature, pressure and wind speed, which showed high inter-annual variability, particularly in winter season. The variations in monthly averaged temperature, wind speed and pressured agreed well with near and far inland five AWS sites, particularly better with those at Bear Peninsula. Semi annul oscillation (SAO) was dominant in the annual cycle of pressure, but no significant change in temperature due to SAO for pressure was found. There were no significant trends in seasonal averaged temperature with year over last seven years. The area was characterized with persistent influence of katabatic wind from the continent, but Amundsen-Bellingshausen Seas Low depending on its longitudinal location influenced surface wind regime and resulted in temperature change in winter at the site.