Identification

Title

Precipitation regime of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, derived from Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) archive data

Abstract

The precipitation regime of Dronning Maud Land (DML), Antarctica, was studied using Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) archive data. Precipitation is the most important component of the mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet. Precipitation studies of DML are particularly important because two deep ice core drilling sites, Kohnen Station and Dome Fuji, are located in this region. For the correct interpretation of the ice core properties a thorough understanding of the precipitation regime is necessary. We used the high-resolution AMPS archive data for the years 2001-2006 to investigate the temporal and spatial distribution of precipitation. The results were compared to a recently published mass balance map derived from glaciological data of western DML. The mass balance map and the AMPS mean annual precipitation field show fairly similar patterns, which are mostly related to topography and prevailing wind systems. Precipitation is found to generally decrease from the coast to the inland plateau. Along the escarpment between the low-altitude coastal areas and the interior plateau, local minima and maxima in precipitation correspond to the leeward and windward sides of topographical ridges. Interannual variability of monthly sums of precipitation is fairly high owing to the influence of cyclone activity on precipitation, which affects not only the coastal regions, but also the interior of the continent more than previously thought.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7sq90kj

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-12-17T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact