Synoptic conditions and atmospheric moisture pathways associated with virga and precipitation over coastal Adélie Land in Antarctica

Jullien, Nicolas; Vignon, Étienne; Sprenger, Michael; Aemisegger, Franziska; Berne, Alexis

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1685-2020

Articles | Volume 14, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1685-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1685-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 5

Research article

|

27 May 2020

Research article |

| 27 May 2020

Synoptic conditions and atmospheric moisture pathways associated with virga and precipitation over coastal Adélie Land in Antarctica

Nicolas Jullien, Étienne Vignon, Michael Sprenger, Franziska Aemisegger, and Alexis Berne

Data sets

Precipitation observations at the Dumont d'Urville station, Adelie Land, East Antarctica A. Berne, J. Grazioli, and C. Genthon https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.883562

Short summary

Although snowfall is the main input of water to the Antarctic ice sheet, snowflakes are often evaporated by dry and fierce winds near the surface of the continent. The amount of snow that actually reaches the ground is therefore considerably reduced. By analyzing the position of cyclones and fronts as well as by back-tracing the atmospheric moisture pathway towards Antarctica, this study explains in which meteorological conditions snowfall is either completely evaporated or reaches the ground.