Temperature variability at Siple Dome, West Antarctica, derived from ECMWF re-analyses, SSM/I and SMMR brightness temperatures and AWS records

Abstract

AbstractWe produced four independent temperature time series derived from different sensors for the Siple Dome region of West Antarctica to investigate seasonal to interannual temperature variability over the last 20 years. We use data from automatic weather station air-temperature records (1997–99), European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts surface temperature from the 15 year re-analyses (ERA-15, 1979–93), and emissivity-corrected brightness temperatures from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (1987–99) and the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (1978–87). Each technique has limitations and errors, but all respond to temperature, and all agree in the large patterns of temperature variability over time. Our results show that there is high seasonal to interannual variability in both mean temperature and variance in the Siple Dome region during the study period. In particular, fluctuations in seasonal to interannual temperature variance occur on an approximately 5 year cycle and correlate with variations in the Southern Oscillation Index.