Abstract
The orographic effects of Antarctica on the atmospheric circulation are investigated through idealized orographic reduction numerical experiments performed using the NCAR CAM5 model. The investigation shows that, in the absence of the orography over the continent, the troposphere becomes warmer and wetter, the sea level pressure reduces, and the precipitation is enhanced. Furthermore, over the continent, the height of the tropopause increases, the stationary waves become weaker, and the southern polar jet gets more energetic. The radiative budget also gets altered, with more outgoing longwave radiation over the continent, which drives circulation changes beneath. The mean atmospheric circulation is weakened with weakening and shrinking of the Polar cell and widening of the Ferrel cell in the Southern Hemisphere, which decreases the contribution by mean flow towards poleward energy transport. An increase in transient eddy due to an enhancement of baroclinicity over the region supports poleward energy transport and compensates for a higher outgoing longwave radiation over the Antarctic continent. These significant changes observed in idealized Antarctic orographic reduction demonstrate the importance of the present Antarctic orography and ice cover for the Southern Hemisphere. The impact of these changes provides valuable insights on the future role of Antarctic orography on the earth’s climate system from a fundamental point of view.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahbe E, Caldeira K (2017) Spatial distribution of generation of Lorenz’s available potential energy in a global climate model. J Clim 30(6):2089–2101. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0614.1
Arndt S, Willmes S, Dierking W, Nicolaus M (2016) Timing and regional patterns of snowmelt on Antarctic sea ice from passive microwave satellite observations. J Geophys Res Oceans 121(8):5916–5930. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JC011504
Boos W, Kuang Z (2010) Dominant control of the South Asian monsoon by orographic insulation versus plateau heating. Nature 463:218–222. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08707
Broccoli AJ, Manabe S (1992) The effects of orography on midlatitude Northern Hemisphere dry climates. J Clim 5:1181–1201. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1992)005<1181:TEOOOM>2.0.CO;2
Chen G, Zurita-Gotor P (2008) The tropospheric jet response to prescribed zonal forcing in an idealized atmospheric model. J Atmos Sci 65:2254–2271. https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JAS2589.1
Chen G, Held IM, Robinson WA (2007) Sensitivity of the latitude of the surface westerlies to surface friction. J Atmos Sci 64:2899–2915. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS3995.1
Cohen NY, Gerber EP, Bühler O (2014) What drives the Brewer–Dobson circulation? J Atmos Sci 71:3837–3855. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-14-0021.1
Drinkwater MR, Liu X (2000) Seasonal to interannual variability in Antarctic sea-ice surface melt. IEEE Trans Geosci Remote Sens 38(4):1827–1842. https://doi.org/10.1109/36.851767
Goldner A, Herold N, Huber M (2014) Antarctic glaciation caused ocean circulation changes at the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Nature 511:574–577. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13597
Hack JJ (1994) Parameterization of moist convection in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model (CCM2). J Geophys Res 99(D3):5551–5568. https://doi.org/10.1029/93JD03478
Hahn DS, Manabe S (1975) The role of mountains in the south Asian monsoon circulation. J Atmos Sci 32:1515–1541. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1975)032<1515:TROMIT>2.0.CO;2
Held IM, Phillips PJ (1990) A barotropic model of the interaction between the Hadley cell and a Rossby wave. J Atmos Sci 47:856–869. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1990)047<0856:ABMOTI>2.0.CO;2
Jackson C (2000) Sensitivity of stationary wave amplitude to regional changes in Laurentide ice sheet topography in single-layer models of the atmosphere. J Geo Phys Res 105(D19):24 443–24 454. https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900377
Justino F, Marengo J, Kucharski F, Stordal F, Machado J, Rodrigues M (2014) Influence of Antarctic ice sheet lowering on the Southern Hemisphere climate: Modeling experiments mimicking the mid-Miocene. Clim Dyn 42(3–4):843–858. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1689-9
Källén E (1981) The nonlinear effects of orographic and momentum forcing in a low-order, barotropic model. J Atmos Sci 38(2150–2163):10–1175. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1981)038<2150:TNEOOA>2.0.CO;2
Lawrence DM et al (2011) Parameterization improvements and functional and structural advances in version 4 of the Community Land Model. J Adv Model Earth Syst 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1029/2011MS00045
Lorenz EN (1967) The nature and theory of the general circulation of the atmosphere. World Metrological Organization, Geneva 161 pp
Mechoso CR (1980) The atmospheric circulation around Antarctica: linear stability and finite amplitude interactions with migrating cyclones. J Atmos Sci 37:2209–2233. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1980)037<2209:TACAAL>2.0.CO;2
Mechoso C (1981) Topographic influences on the general circulation of the Southern Hemisphere: a numerical experiment. Mon Weather Rev 109:2131–2139. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1981)109<2131:TIOTGC>2.0.CO;2
Mishra SK, Anand A, Fasullo J, Bhagat S (2018) Importance of the resolution of surface topography in indian monsoon simulation. J Clim 31:4879–4898. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0324.1
Naito Y, Yoden S (2006) Behavior of planetary waves before and after stratospheric sudden warming events in several phases of the equatorial QBO. J Atmos Sci 63:1637–1649. https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS3702.1
Neale RB, et al (2010), Description of the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model (CAM4). NCAR Technical Note NCAR/TN-486+STR, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, 268pp. http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/ccsm4.0/cam/docs/description/cam4_desc.pdf
Ogura T, Abe-Ouchi A (2001) Influence of the Antarctic ice sheet on southern high latitude climate during the Cenozoic: Albedo vs topography effect. Geophys Res Lett 28(4):587–590. https://doi.org/10.1029/2000GL011366
Parish TR, Waight K (1987) The forcing of antarctic katabatic winds. Mon Weather Rev 115:2214–2226. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1987)115<2214:TFOAKW>2.0.CO;2
Park K, Kang SM, Kim D, Stuecker MF, Jin F (2018) Contrasting local and remote impacts of surface heating on polar warming and amplification. J Clim 31:3155–3166. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0600.1
Pollard D, DeConto RM (2009) Modelling West Antarctic ice sheet growth and collapse through the past five million years. Nature 458(7236):329–332
Prabhu A, Mahajan PN, Khaladkar RM, Bawiskar SM (2009) Connection between Antarctic sea-ice extent and Indian summer monsoon rainfall. Int J Remote Sens 30:3485–3494. https://doi.org/10.1080/01431160802562248
Rajan S (2018) Abrupt climate shifts over the past 10,000+ years: an Arctic-Antarctic-Asian imbroglio?, in Science and geopolitics of the White world. Springer, Cham, pp 82–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57765-4_7
Rignot E, Mouginot J, Morlighem M, Seroussi H, Scheuchl B (2014) Widespread, rapid grounding line retreat of Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith, and Kohler glaciers, West Antarctica, from 1992 to 2011. Geophys Res Lett 41(10):3502–3509. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060140
Ruddiman W, Kutzbach JE (1989) Forcing of late Cenozoic northern hemi- sphere climate by plateau uplift in southern Asia and the American west. J Geophys Res 94(D15):18 409–18 427. https://doi.org/10.1029/JD094iD15p18409
Scherer RP (1991) Quaternary and Tertiary microfossils from beneath Ice Stream B: Evidence for a dynamic West Antarctic Ice Sheet history. Global and Planetary Change 4(4):395–412
Schmittner A, Silva TA, Fraedrich K, Kirk E, Lunkeit F (2011) Effects of mountains and ice sheets on global ocean circulation. J.Climate 24:2814–2829. https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JCLI3982.1
Seager R, Battisti D, Yin J, Gordon N, Naik N, Clement A, Cane M (2002) Is the Gulf Stream responsible for Europe’s mild winters? Q J R Meteoreol Soc 128(586):2563–2586. https://doi.org/10.1256/qj.01.128
Shi Z, Liu X, Liu Y, Sha Y, Xu T (2015) Impact of Mongolian Plateau versus Tibetan Plateau on the westerly jet over North Pacific Ocean. Clim Dyn 44(11–12):3067–3076. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2217-2
Simmonds I, Law R (1995) Associations between Antarctic katabatic flow and the upper level winter vortex. Int J Climatol 15(4):403–421. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3370150405
Singh HKA, Bitz CM, Frierson DMW (2016) The global climate re- sponse to lowering surface orography of Antarctica and the importance of atmo- sphere–ocean coupling. J Clim 29:4137–4153. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0442.1
Smagorinsky J (1953) The dynamical influence of large-scale heat sources and sinks on the quasi-stationary mean motions of the atmosphere. Q J R Meteorol Soc 79(341):342–366. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49707934103
Takahashi K, Battisti D (2007) Processes controlling the mean tropical Pacific precipitation pattern. Part II: the SPCZ and the southeast Pacific dry zone. J Clim 20:5696–5706. https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1656.1
Trenberth KE, Stepaniak D (2003) Seamless poleward atmospheric energy transports and implications for the Hadley circulation. J Clim 16:3706–3722. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<3706:SPAETA>2.0.CO;2
Uotila P, Vihma T, Pezza AB, Simmonds I, Keay K, Lynch AH (2011) Relationships between Antarctic cyclones and surface conditions as derived from high-resolution numerical weather prediction data. J Geophys Res 116(D7). https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD015358
Walsh K, Simmonds I, Collier M (2000) Sigma-coordinate calculation of topographically forced baroclinicity around Antarctica. Dyn Atmos Oceans 33(1):1–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-0265(00)00054-3
White RH, Battisti DS, Roe GH (2017) Mongolian mountains matter most: Impacts of the latitude and height of Asian orography on Pacific winter time atmospheric circulation. J Clim 30(4065–4082):4065–4082. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0401.1
Whitehouse PL, Gomez N, King MA, Wiens DA (2019) Solid Earth change and the evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nat Commun 10(1):503. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08068-y
Winkelmann R, Levermann A, Ridgwell A, Caldeira K (2015) Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Sci Adv 1(8). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500589
Xue F, Guo PW, Yu ZH (2003) Influence of interannual variability of Antarctic sea-ice on summer rainfall in eastern China. Adv Atmos Sci 20(1):97–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03342053
Yang H, Li Q, Wang K, Sun Y, Sun D (2015) Decomposing the meridional heat transport in the climate system. Clim Dyn 44(9–10):2751–2768. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2380-5
Ye DZ, Wu GX (1998) The role of the heat source of the Tibetan Plateau in the general circulation. Meteorog Atmos Phys 67(1–4):181–198. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01277509
Yuan X, Martinson DG (2000) Antarctic sea ice extent variability and its global connectivity. J Clim 13:1697–1717. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2000)013<1697:ASIEVA>2.0.CO;2
Zhang GJ, McFarlane NA (1995) Sensitivity of climate simulations to the parameterization of cumulus convection in the Canadian Climate Centre general circulation model. Atmos.–Ocean 33(3):407–446. https://doi.org/10.1080/07055900.1995.9649539
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mr. Raju Pathak for providing initial help in the computational work and IIT Delhi HPC facility for providing computational support. The authors would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which have improved the quality of this manuscript. The NCAR CAM model of the CESM project supported by the National Science Foundation and Office of Science (BER) of US Department of Energy is used. For data analysis and plotting, NCAR NCL 6.4.0 was used.
Funding
The research was partially supported by the DST Centre of Excellence in Climate Modeling at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. K. Tewari acknowledges the Ph.D. fellowship from MHRD and the financial assistance received from Japan Student Service Organization (JASSO) for the ILDP Exchange program for his visit to Hiroshima University, Japan, during which a part of this work was carried out.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tewari, K., Mishra, S.K., Dewan, A. et al. Effects of the Antarctic elevation on the atmospheric circulation. Theor Appl Climatol 143, 1487–1499 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03456-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-020-03456-1