Climate of Antarctica


The climate of Antarctica is the coldest on Earth. The continent is also extremely dry, averaging of precipitation per year. Snow rarely melts on most parts of the continent, and, after being compressed, becomes the glacier ice that makes up the ice sheet. Weather fronts rarely penetrate far into the continent, because of the katabatic winds. Most of Antarctica has an ice-cap climate with very cold, generally extremely dry weather.

Temperature

The highest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was at Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station on 9 February 2020, beating the previous record of at Esperanza Base, on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, on 6 February 2020.
A higher temperature of recorded at Signy Research Station on 30 January 1982 was the record for the Antarctic region encompassing all land and ice south of 60° S. cycles of the present ice age The lowest air temperature record, the lowest reliably measured temperature on Antarctica was set on 21 July 1983, when was observed at Vostok Station. For comparison, this is colder than subliming dry ice. The altitude of the location is.
Satellite measurements have identified even lower ground temperatures, with having been observed at the cloud-free East Antarctic Plateau on 10 August 2010.
The lowest recorded temperature of any location on Earth's surface at was revised with new data in 2018 in nearly 100 locations, ranging from to. This unnamed part of the Antarctic plateau, between Dome A and Dome F, was measured on 10 August 2010, and the temperature was deduced from radiance measured by the Landsat 8 and other satellites. It was discovered during a National Snow and Ice Data Center review of stored data in December 2013 but revised by researchers on 25 June 2018. This temperature is not directly comparable to the –89.2 °C reading quoted above, since it is a skin temperature deduced from satellite-measured upwelling radiance, rather than a thermometer-measured temperature of the air above the ground surface.
The mean annual temperature of the interior is. The coast is warmer; on the coast Antarctic average temperatures are around and in the elevated inland they average about in Vostok.
Monthly means at McMurdo Station range from in August to in January.
At the South Pole, the highest temperature ever recorded was on 25 December 2011. Along the Antarctic Peninsula, temperatures as high as have been recorded, though the summer temperature is below most of the time. Severe low temperatures vary with latitude, elevation, and distance from the ocean. East Antarctica is colder than West Antarctica because of its higher elevation. The Antarctic Peninsula has the most moderate climate. Higher temperatures occur in January along the coast and average slightly below freezing.

Precipitation

The total precipitation on Antarctica, averaged over the entire continent, is about per year. The actual rates vary widely, from high values over the Peninsula to very low values. Areas that receive less than of precipitation per year are classified as deserts. Almost all Antarctic precipitation falls as snow. Rainfall is rare and mainly occurs during the summer in coastal areas and surrounding islands. Note that the quoted precipitation is a measure of its equivalence to water, rather than being the actual depth of snow. The air in Antarctica is also very dry. The low temperatures result in a very low absolute humidity, which means that dry skin and cracked lips are a continual problem for scientists and expeditioners working on the continent.

Weather condition classification

The weather in Antarctica can be highly variable, and the weather conditions can often change dramatically in short periods of time. There are various classifications for describing weather conditions in Antarctica; restrictions given to workers during the different conditions vary by station and nation.

Ice cover

Nearly all of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice that is, on average, a mile thick or more. Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice and more than 70% of its fresh water. If all the land-ice covering Antarctica were to melt — around of ice — the seas would rise by over. This is, however, very unlikely within the next few centuries. The Antarctic is so cold that even with increases of a few degrees, temperatures would generally remain below the melting point of ice. Higher temperatures are expected to lead to more precipitation, which takes the form of snow. This would increase the amount of ice in Antarctica, offsetting approximately one third of the expected sea level rise from thermal expansion of the oceans.
During a recent decade, East Antarctica thickened at an average rate of about per year while West Antarctica showed an overall thinning of per year. For the contribution of Antarctica to present and future sea level change, see sea level rise. Because ice flows, albeit slowly, the ice within the ice sheet is younger than the age of the sheet itself.
RegionArea
Mean ice
thickness
Volume
East Antarctica
Inland ice9,855,5702,63025,920,100
Ice shelves293,510400117,400
Ice rises4,0904001,600
West Antarctica
Inland ice sheet1,809,7601,7803,221,400
Ice shelves104,86037539,300
Ice rises3,5503751,300
Antarctic Peninsula
Inland ice sheet300,380610183,200
Ice shelves144,75030043,400
Ice rises1,570300500
Ross Ice Shelf
Ice shelf525,840427224,500
Ice rises10,3205005,100
Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf
Ice shelf472,760650307,300
Ice rises59,44075044,600

Ice shelves

About 75% of the coastline of Antarctica is shelf ice. The majority of shelf ice consists of floating ice, and a lesser amount consists of glaciers that move slowly from the land mass into the sea. Ice shelves lose mass through breakup of glacial ice, or basal melting due to warm ocean water under the ice.
Melting or breakup of floating shelf ice does not directly affect global sea levels; however, ice shelves have a buttressing effect on the ice flow behind them. If ice shelves break up, the ice flow behind them may accelerate, resulting in increasing melt of the Antarctic ice sheet and an increasing contribution to sea level.
Known changes in coastline ice:
The George VI Ice Shelf, which may be on the brink of instability, has probably existed for approximately 8,000 years, after melting 1,500 years earlier. Warm ocean currents may have been the cause of the melting. Not only the ice sheets are losing mass, but they are losing mass at an accelerating rate.

Global warming

The continent-wide average surface temperature trend of Antarctica is positive – that is, the temperature is increasing – and significant at more than per decade since 1957.
The West Antarctic ice sheet has warmed by more than per decade in the last 50 years, and is strongest in winter and spring. Although this is partly offset by fall cooling in East Antarctica, this effect is restricted to the 1980s and 1990s.
Research published in 2009 found that overall the continent had become warmer since the 1950s, a finding consistent with the influence of man-made climate change. "We can't pin it down, but it certainly is consistent with the influence of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels", said NASA scientist Drew Shindell, one of the study's authors. Some of the effects could be due to natural variability, he added.
The British Antarctic Survey, which has undertaken the majority of Britain's scientific research in the area, stated in 2009:
map showing previously un-melted snowmelt
The area of strongest cooling appears at the South Pole, and the region of strongest warming lies along the Antarctic Peninsula. A possible explanation is that loss of UV-absorbing ozone may have cooled the stratosphere and strengthened the polar vortex, a pattern of spinning winds around the South Pole. The vortex acts like an atmospheric barrier, preventing warmer, coastal air from moving into the continent's interior. A stronger polar vortex might explain the cooling trend in the interior of Antarctica.
In their latest study NASA researchers have confirmed that Antarctic snow is melting farther inland from the coast over time, melting at higher altitudes than ever and increasingly melting on Antarctica's largest ice shelf.
There is also evidence for widespread glacier retreat around the Antarctic Peninsula.
Researchers reported on 21 December 2012 in Nature Geoscience that from 1958 to 2010, the average temperature at the mile-high Byrd Station rose by, with warming fastest in its winter and spring. The spot, which is located in the heart of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth. In 2015, the temperature showed changes but in a stable manner and the only months that have drastic change in that year are August and September. It also did show that the temperature was very stable throughout the year.

Climate