Skip to main content
Log in

Evaluation of trends and analysis of air temperature and wind on the Antarctic Peninsula using extreme value theory

  • Research
  • Published:
Theoretical and Applied Climatology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The west side of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) has shown great variability since the middle of the last century characterized by warming mainly because of the oceanic and atmospheric effects such as the disintegration of floating ice and the strength of westerly winds. Here, we used two climatic databases (reanalysis from 1979 to 2020 and surface stations from 1947 to 2020) to investigate trends in extreme air temperatures and wind components in the oceanic region between 55° S and 70° S in the west (75° W) and in the east sector (45° W) and over the AP (60° W). Non-parametric statistical trend tests and extreme value approaches are used. A set of annual, monthly, and seasonal series are fitted. The extremal index is applied to measure the degree of independence of monthly excesses over a threshold considered extreme events. Increasing trends are verified in the annual and monthly temperature and wind series. The greatest trends are observed for seasonal series from reanalysis without change-point in summer and winter. Decreasing trends are observed for maximum temperature in summer and positive trends mainly for the westerly winds over the AP. But in winter, the maximum temperature shows an increasing trend also over the AP. Most of reanalysis seasonal minimum temperature and wind components as well as maximum and minimum temperatures from stations present increasing trends with change-point but tend to stability after the breakpoints. The generalized distribution (GEV) is used to fit temperatures and westerly wind between South America (SA) and north of the AP. The 100-year return levels exceed the maximum value of the maximum temperature in Esperanza and maximum westerly winds at several grid points. Pareto and Poison distributions are applied for the maximum temperatures from stations and the 100-year return levels are not exceeded. Our findings show significant positive trends for monthly wind components near the SA in the region of the westerly winds whose changes in position influence directly the SAM, which modifies the atmospheric patterns in the South Hemisphere (SH). A predominance of seasonal warming is identified, which may impact the climate with consequences not only locally but also in other regions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data: https://psl.noaa.gov/data/reanalysis/reanalysis.shtml

READER (British Antarctic Survey): https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/reader/

extRemes_R-2.0–8.tar.gz: R source package.

Code availability

v72i08.R: R replication code.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

The extRemes software package used in this research was initially supported by the Weather and Climate Impacts Assessment Science Program (http://www.assessment.ucar.edu), which is funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF). I would like to thank John Turner of the British Antarctic Survey and Steve Colwell, the READER data manager for supporting the database from meteorological stations on the Antarctic Peninsula. Appreciation and thanks are also given anonymous reviewer for your constructive comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

The first designed the study, methodology, data, and result analysis, and wrote the manuscript. J. L. F. O. collected samples, conducted data processing, and contributed to result analysis. E. G. contributed to the analysis of the extRemes software results and corrected the manuscript. N. F. F. E. contributed to the formal analysis and reviewed the manuscript. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marilia Mitidieri Fernandes de Oliveira.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

This manuscript has not been published or presented elsewhere in part or in entirety and is not under consideration by another journal.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 7282 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

de Oliveira, M.M.F., de Oliveira, J.L.F., Gilleland, E. et al. Evaluation of trends and analysis of air temperature and wind on the Antarctic Peninsula using extreme value theory. Theor Appl Climatol 155, 3047–3070 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-023-04753-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-023-04753-1

Navigation