Antarctic Peninsula Climate Variability:
A Historical and Paleoenvironmental Perspective

APRIL 3-5, 2002


Workshop Home

About the Workshop

Publication

Agenda

Keynote Speakers

Panel Discussion

Speakers' Abstracts

Posters

Steering Committee

Antarctic Expedition 2001

Antarctic Expedition 2003

Antarctic Expedition 2004


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Large-scale influences on Antarctic Peninsula climate

Ian Simmonds, University of Melbourne
School of Earth Sciences
Victoria Australia, 3010
Email: simmonds@unimelb.edu.au

The region centered on the Antarctic Peninsula is increasingly being seen as a 'hot spot' in Southern Hemisphere (SH) climate. Recent work has shown that the climate of the area has undergone changes which are rather different from those observed over the rest of the continent. In the past the poor observational record of this region of the Antarctic, and of the SH as a whole, has militated against being able to see these changes in a broader perspective, and has meant that analyses of climate variability and change have had to be undertaken with caution. In more recent times the acquisition of data from a wide variety of platforms (e.g., satellites, AWSs) and the application of sophisticated integrating techniques have meant that we now have at our disposal representations of the SH weather and climate over the last 4 or 5 decades which are far superior to those used heretofore.

One of the overall messages which has come from the application of these reliable data sets is that there is a very broad range of large-scale processes which influence climate in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Results of recent research will be shown which quantifies the propagation of the 'Pacific-South America' teleconnection pattern. This quasi stationary pattern is forced by sea surface temperature anomalies in the equatorial Pacific (associated with El NiƱo), and it shows nodes in the Bellingshausen / Amundsen Seas and in the Weddell Sea. Significant variations in Peninsula climate (circulation, temperature, sea ice, etc.) are associated with this low latitude forcing. Research on other large-scale phenomena which force this key region, along with the consequences of more localized air - sea - sea ice interactions, will also be presented. These include vacillations in the 'semiannual oscillation' and the structure of the 'Antarctic circumpolar wave'.