Antarctic meteorology

FMI and the University of Helsinki carry out a project ‘Antarctic Meteorology and its Interaction with the Cryosphere and Ocean' (AMICO). Collaboration is made with the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, British Antarctic Survey, CSIRO in Australia, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Texas A&M University, and Ohio State University in the USA.

AMICO is funded by the Academy of Finland and its main objectives are to obtain a better quantitative knowledge on meteorological processes in the Antarctic and utilize this to improve numerical weather prediction and climate models. The following issues are studied:
 

  • Surface heat budget on the continental ice sheet, ice shelves, and sea ice
  • Surface albedo and the factors controlling it
  • Cloud radiative forcing on shortwave and longwave radiation
  • Effects of katabatic winds on the air temperature
  • Wind forcing on sea ice drift
  • Atmospheric moisture budget over the Antarctica and Southern Ocean
  • Interaction of cyclones and the surface conditions, such as sea ice cover, surface temperature and surface fluxes.

Observations are analysed from field expeditions to the Finnish Aboa station in 2006-2011, an aircraft campaign based in the British Rothera station in 2010, and sea ice expeditions, such as the Ice Station Polarstern in 2004-2005. In addition, satellite remote sensing data are applied and numerical modelling experiments are carried out applying several models, among others WRF.

More information: Timo Vihma / Finnish Meteorological Institute
 

Snow surface energy balance has been measured in the vicinity of the Finnish Aboa station in 2006-2011 (photo: Timo Vihma).

 

Weather mast on the glacier close to Aboa (photo: Timo Vihma).

 

In February-March 2010 we participated in an aircraft campaign based on Rothera with flights on both sides of the Antarctic Peninsula. The photo shows ice bergs disintegrated from the Wilkins Ice Shelf, seen from the AWI Polar 5 aircraft.

 

Recent publications

Uotila, P., T. Vihma, A. B. Pezza, I. Simmonds, K. Keay, and A. H. Lynch. Relationships between Antarctic cyclones and surface conditions as derived from high resolution NWP data. Submitted to J. Geophys. Res.

Vihma, T., E. Tuovinen, and H. Savijärvi. The effect of the Antarctic katabatic winds on near-surface temperatures. Submitted to J. Geophys. Res.

Zhang, Z., A. Stössel, and T. Vihma. On the Impact of a High-resolution wind Forcing over Southern Ocean Sea Ice. Submitted to J. Clim.

Tastula, E.-M., and T. Vihma (2010). WRF model experiments on the Antarctic atmosphere in winter. Mon. Wea. Rev., accepted.

Vihma, T., O.-P. Mattila, R. Pirazzini, and M. M. Johansson. (2010). Spatial and temporal variability in summer snow pack in the Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The Cryosphere Discuss., 4, 1–44, doi:10.5194/tcd-4-1-2010.

Vihma, T. (2010). Atmosphere-snow/ice interactions. In: V.P. Singh, P. Singh, U.K. Haritashya (Eds.) Encyclopedia of snow, ice and glaciers. Springer, in press.

Valkonen, T., T. Vihma, S. Kirkwood, and M. M. Johansson (2010). Fine-scale model simulation of gravity waves generated by Basen nunatak in Antarctica. Tellus, 62A, 319–332.

Savijärvi, H. (2009), Stable boundary layer: parameterizations for local and larger scales. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 135, 914-921.

Vihma, T., M. M. Johansson, and J. Launiainen (2009). Radiative and turbulent surface heat fluxes over sea ice in the western Weddell Sea in early summer. J. Geophys. Res., 114, C04019, doi:10.1029/2008JC004995.

Vihma, T., J. Launiainen, and R. Pirazzini (2009). 20-years of Finnish research on boundary-layer meteorology and air-ice-sea interaction in the Antarctic, Geophysica, 45(1-2), 7-26.

Pirazzini, R., 2009. Challenges in snow and ice albedo parameterizations, Geophysica, 45(1-2), 41-62.

Lüpkes, C., T. Vihma, G. Birnbaum, and U. Wacker (2008), Influence of leads in sea ice on the temperature of the atmospheric boundary layer during polar night, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L03805, doi:10.1029/2007GL032461.

Pirazzini, R. (2008). Factors controlling the surface energy budget over snow and ice (PhD Thesis). Finnish Meteorological Institute Contributions, 75, 48 p. + 6 appendices.

Pirazzini, R., and P. Räisänen (2008). A method to account for surface albedo heterogeneity in single column radiative transfer calculations under overcast conditions, J. Geopys. Res., 113, doi:10.1029/2008JD009815.

Valkonen, T., T. Vihma, and M. Doble (2008), Mesoscale modelling of the atmospheric boundary layer over the Antarctic sea ice: a late autumn case study. Mon. Wea. Rev., 136, 1457-1474.

Stössel, A., W.-G. Cheon, and T. Vihma (2008), Interactive momentum flux forcing over sea ice in a global ocean GCM, J. Geophys. Res, 113, C05010, doi:10.1029/2007JC004173.

Tietäväinen, H. and T. Vihma (2008), Atmospheric moisture budget over Antarctica and Southern Ocean on the basis of ERA-40 reanalysis. Int. J. Climatol., 28, 1977-1995,
doi: 10.1002/joc.1684.
 
Vihma, T., Preface (for the Special Issues on the atmospheric boundary layer over sea ice), Boundary-Layer Meteorol., 117, 1-4, 2005.

Pirazzini, R. (2004). Surface albedo measurements over Antarctic sites in summer. J. Geophys. Res., 109, doi: 10.1029/2004JD004617.

Vihma, T., J. Uotila, B. Cheng, and J. Launiainen, Surface heat budget over the Weddell Sea: buoy results and comparisons with large-scale models, J. Geophys. Res., 107 (C2), doi: 10.1029/2000JC00037, 2002.
 

4.12.2010