General description of some meteo-marine variables of surface waters adjacent to the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctic Peninsula, during 1979-2018 based on Era5 data

Abstract

Aspatial and temporal description of meteo-marine parameters for 1979-2018 period of the marine region surrounding the Palmer Archipelago, located West of the Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), is presented. The used information was extracted from the ERA5 reanalysis. Air Temperature (Ta), Total Precipitation (TP) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) showed a general increase over the last 40 years in the study region. The highest increase of Ta, TP and SST values were recorded north of Gerlache Strait, followed by Bismarck Strait. It was evidenced that Sea Ice Cover (SIC) has decreased mostly north of Palmer Archipelago. The existence of a local differentiation of meteo-marine conditions around the Palmer Archipelago was identified. The climatology of five reference points in the region showed more visible differences during the austral winter in Ta and SIC, these were appreciated during the austral summer in SST and a bimodal behavior was recorded in Pr. The rate of change during the 1979-2018 period for Ta was 0.011 ºC/year, for Pr it was 0.008 mm/year, for SST it was 0.004 ºC/year and for SIC it was -0.003 fraction/year.