An extreme high temperature event in coastal East Antarctica associated with an atmospheric river and record summer downslope winds

Turner, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6111-5122; Lu, Hua ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9485-5082; King, John C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3315-7568; Carpentier, Scott; Lazzara, Matthew; Phillips, Tony ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3058-9157; Wille, Jonathan. 2022 An extreme high temperature event in coastal East Antarctica associated with an atmospheric river and record summer downslope winds. Geophysical Research Letters, 49 (4), e2021GL097108. 11, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097108

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Abstract/Summary

High surface temperatures are important in Antarctica because of their role in ice melt and sea level rise. We investigate a high temperature event in December 1989 that gave record temperatures in coastal East Antarctica between 60º and 100º E. The high temperatures were associated with a pool of warm lower tropospheric air with December temperature anomalies of >14º C that developed in two stages over the Amery Ice Shelf. Firstly, there was near-record poleward warm advection within an atmospheric river. Secondly, synoptically-driven downslope flow from the interior reached unprecedented December strength over a large area, leading to strong descent and further warming in the coastal region. The coastal easterly winds were unusually deep and strong, and the warm pool was advected westwards, giving a short period of high temperatures at coastal locations, including a surface temperature of 9.3ºC at Mawson, the second highest in its 66-year record.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097108
ISSN:	0094-8276
Additional Keywords:	extreme event, high temperatures, atmospheric river, Antarctica
Date made live:	04 Feb 2022 09:27 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531893

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097108

ISSN:

0094-8276

Additional Keywords:

extreme event, high temperatures, atmospheric river, Antarctica

Date made live:

04 Feb 2022 09:27 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/531893