SEA-LEVEL PRESSURE TRENDS IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN AND ANTARCTICA FROM REANALYSIS AND IN SITU DATA

  • P. Yu. Romanov NOAA-CREST, City University of New York
  • N. A. Romanova Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.29006/1564-2291.JOR-2021.49(4).3
Keywords Reanalysis datasets, Antarctic region, mean sea-level pressure, trends, in situ observations

Abstract

Trends in the mean sea-level pressure (SLP) in Antarctica in the last four decades (1980– 2020) have been examined using in situ observations and reanalysis data. The analysis involved time series of monthly mean, season-mean and yearly-mean values of the SLP derived from four reanalysis datasets, NCEP/NCAR, ERA5, JRA55, MERRA2, and from surface observations acquired from the Reference Antarctic Data for Environmental Research (READER) dataset. With this data we have evaluated the trends, characterized their seasonal peculiarities and variation across the high-latitude region of the Southern Hemisphere. The results of the analysis confirmed the dominance of decreasing trends in the annual mean SLP in Antarctica. Larger negative trends were found in the Western Antarctica with the most pronounced pressure drop in the South Pacific. The long-term decrease in the annual mean SLP in Antarctica was due to strong negative pressure trends in the austral summer and fall season whereas in winter and in spring the trends turn to mixed and mostly positive. The comparison of multiyear time series of SLP reanalysis data with in situ observations at Antarctic stations revealed a considerable overestimate of negative SLP trends in the NCEP/NCAR dataset. Among the four examined reanalysis datasets, ERA5 provided the best agreement with the station data on the annual mean and monthly mean SLP trend values.

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Published
2021-12-30
Issue
Vol 49 No 4 (2021): Journal of Oceanological Research
Section
Ocean physics and climate

Transfer of copyrights occurs on the basis of a license agreement between the Author and Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, RAS