HR: 14:40h
AN: C13A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: The Influence of Atmospheric Zonal Wave Three on Antarctic Winter Sea Ice Variability
AU: * Raphael, M N
EM: raphael@geog.ucla.edu
AF: UCLA Department of Geography, 1255 Bunche Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1524
AB: This research deals specifically with the response of sea ice concentration to zonal wave three, the asymmetric component of the large scale atmospheric circulation associated with meridional flow in the Southern Hemisphere. A zonal wave 3 index (ZW3) is created from the NCAR-NCEP Reanalyses, 1979 - 2004 and used to explore the influence of the large-scale atmospheric circulation on Antarctic sea ice concentration (SIC). Results indicate that this index is strongly associated with the EOF of SIC which isolates the simultaneous variation in the three regions of sea ice production around Antarctica - the Weddell and Ross Seas and the Amery iceshelf. The relationship is most strongly expressed in the Southern late fall to early winter and is discussed in terms of the local surface and air temperature anomalies associated with ZW3. The amplitude of ZW3 increased over the decades of the 1980s and 1990s. The influence of this change in amplitude on Antarctic sea ice concentration trends is also discussed.
DE: 1621 Cryospheric change (0776)
DE: 3339 Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504)
DE: 3349 Polar meteorology
DE: 4215 Climate and interannual variability (1616, 1635, 3305, 3309, 4513)
DE: 4540 Ice mechanics and air/sea/ice exchange processes (0700, 0750, 0752, 0754)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005