A twentieth century perspective on summer Antarctic pressure change and variability and contributions from tropical SSTs and ozone depletion

Abstract

AbstractDuring the late twentieth century, the Antarctic atmospheric circulation has changed and significantly influenced the overall Antarctic climate, through processes including a poleward shift of the circumpolar westerlies. However, little is known about the full spatial pattern of atmospheric pressure over the Antarctic continent prior to 1979. Here we investigate surface pressure changes across the entire Antarctic continent back to 1905 by developing a new summer pressure reconstruction poleward of 60°S. We find that only across East Antarctica are the recent pressures significantly lower than pressures in the early twentieth century; we also discern periods of significant positive pressure trends in the early twentieth century across the coastal South Atlantic sector of Antarctica. Climate model simulations reveal that both tropical sea surface temperature variability and other radiative forcing mechanisms, in addition to ozone depletion, have played an important role in forcing the recent observed negative trends.