Journal article
Half-century air temperature change above Antarctica: Observed trends and spatial reconstructions
JA Screen, I Simmonds
Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres | Published : 2012
DOI: 10.1029/2012JD017885
Abstract
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of observed 50-year (1961-2010) seasonal air temperature trends from radiosonde ascents above Antarctica. Comparisons between multiple radiosonde data sets (homogenized in different ways) at each of eight Antarctic stations reveals substantial differences in the upper-air temperature trend magnitudes and their statistical significance between data sets. However, when considering the average of these data sets at each station, or averaging across all stations, a robust vertical profile of half-century temperature change emerges, characterized by mid-tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling. Statistically significant Multistation-mean 500 hPa ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible without the extensive data collation and quality-control undertaken by the SCAR READER project, and meteorological data provided by the international Antarctic science programs. We also thank the following institutes/individuals for providing web access to data sets: British Antarctic Survey, NASA, NCEP, ECWMF, UKMO Hadley Centre, University of Vienna, Steve Sherwood and Gareth Marshall. Parts of this research were funded by the Australian Antarctic Science Advisory Committee and the Australian Research Council. We thank three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which significantly improved the manuscript.