Investigação Climatológica na Península Antártica e no Arquipélago das Shetland do Sul

Abstract

Based on 17 automatic weather stations distributed at different sub regions in South Shetland islands, and over the eastern and western Antarctic Peninsula (AP), this study aims to investigate potential changes of climatological features. Observed monthly data computed on three-month running means are applied to time series of temperature, and zonal and meridional wind components. It has been found that South Shetland islands, Bellingshausen and Jubany weather stations experienced a temperature increase by up to 0.8 °C and 1 °C over the period, but no significant change in wind speed. However, the other 15 weather stations present changes in temperature and winds. At the eastern part of the AP, positive temperatures are evident: 1.7 °C warming was observed at the Esperanza weather station over 56 years, with variations of zonal and meridional wind speed. At the western side of the AP, there is an increase in temperature in all stations, in particular at the Faraday station, where the mean temperature increased 3.2 °C in 63 years. Previous researches show the influence that Antarctica Oscillation exerts on temperature in Antarctica. Zonal and meridional wind components present variations of a few m/s at these stations.