Characteristics of the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over the Southern Ocean in Response to the Synoptic Forcing

Abstract

The characteristics of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) in relation to synoptic meteorology over the Southern Ocean are examined using upper‐air soundings and surface precipitation at Macquarie Island (54.62°S, 158.85°E), with a primary focus on the post‐cold‐frontal environment where large cloud and radiative biases are presented in a multitude of climate models. Thermodynamic profiles from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts ERA‐Interim reanalyses are compared with the observations to evaluate their representation of the MABL characteristics. Observations confirm that boundary layer clouds over the Southern Ocean commonly reside within a shallow MABL under th..