Abstract
The Antarctic mass balance and the hydrological cycle of the entire planet
are tightly linked together. Evaporation from the ocean surface in the
tropical and middle latitudes, poleward moisture and energy transport,
changes in the midlatitude atmospheric dynamics, cloud formation microphysics
- all these processes determine the amount of precipitation in
Antarctica. The main objective of our project is to improve the understanding
of the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle of Antarctica
covering the chain from evaporation/sublimation at the surface via cloud
formation to snowfall. As there is a lack of data on the clouds and precipitation
processes in the Antarctic, the first goal is to establish a new
database that can be used for local process studies and large-scale model
evaluation. The base for our measurements is the new Belgian Antarctic
station Princess Elisabeth (PE) built on the Utsteinen Ridge in Dronning
Maud Land, East Antarctica (71 57’ S and 23 20’ E, 1400masl, 180km
inland). Princess Elisabeth station is located in a nearly thousand kilometer
wide "data gap", where no long-term measurements of the surface
mass balance have been done up to date and where regional climate models
show large differences in snow accumulation estimates.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Extended abstracts of the Workshop on Automatic weather stations on glaciers, Pontresina Switzerland |
Place of Publication | Utrecht |
Publisher | IMAU Utrecht University |
Pages | 40-44 |
Number of pages | 5 |
ISBN (Print) | 978-90-393-5655-5 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Event | IASC Workshop, 23-26 March 2011, Pontresina (Switzerland) - Duration: 1 Jan 2011 → … |
Conference
Conference | IASC Workshop, 23-26 March 2011, Pontresina (Switzerland) |
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Period | 1/01/11 → … |