The origin of Antarctic precipitation: a modelling approach

Gilles Delaygue; Valérie Masson; Jean Jouzel; Randal D. Koster; Richard J. Healy

doi:10.3402/tellusb.v52i1.16079

Original Research Papers

The origin of Antarctic precipitation: a modelling approach

Authors:

Gilles Delaygue ,

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), FR

About Gilles

Additional affiliation: Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement en Ge´oscience de l’Environnement (CEREGE), Europô le de l’Arbois BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 4, France.

Valérie Masson,

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), FR

Jean Jouzel,

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), FR

Randal D. Koster,

Hydrological Sciences Branch, Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes, US

Richard J. Healy

Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry, US

Abstract

The contribution of different moisture sources to Antarctic precipitation for present-day and glacial conditions is estimated with the NASA/GISS Atmospheric General Circulation Model. Despite its low horizontal resolution (8°×10°), this model simulates reasonably well the broad features of the observed present-day hydrological cycle. Simulated present-day Antarctic precipitation is dominated throughout the year by moisture from a subtropical/midlatitude band (30°S^-60°S). The moisture supplied to a given coastal area of Antarctica originates mostly in the adjacent oceanic basin; closer to the pole, other oceanic basins can also contribute significantly. Replacing the present-day sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and sea ice cover in the GCM with those from the CLIMAP oceanic reconstruction for the last glacial maximum (LGM), greatly increases the simulated latitudinal temperature gradient, with the consequence of slightly enhancing the contribution of low latitude moisture to Antarctic precipitation. It also changes the seasonality of the different contributions and thus their budget, particularly in coastal regions. Because the nature of LGM tropical SSTs is still under debate, we performed an additional LGM simulation in which the tropical SSTs are reduced relative to those of CLIMAP. The resulting decrease in the latitudinal gradient brings the relative contributions to Antarctic precipitation more in line with those of the present-day simulation.

How to Cite: Delaygue, G., Masson, V., Jouzel, J., Koster, R.D. and Healy, R.J., 2000. The origin of Antarctic precipitation: a modelling approach. Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 52(1), pp.19–36. DOI: http://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v52i1.16079

Published on 01 Jan 2000

Peer Reviewed

CC BY 4.0

References

Berger , A. L . 1978 . Long-term variations of daily insolation and Quaternary climatic changes. J. Atmos. Sc i . 35 , 2362 – 2367 .
Blunier , T. et al. 1998 . Asynchrony of Antarctic and Greenland climate change during the last glacial period . Nature 394 , 739 – 743 .
Broecker , W. S . 1997 . Thermohaline circulation, the Achilles heel of our climate system : will man-made CO2 upset the current balance? Science 278 , 1582 – 1588 .
Bromwich , D. H . 1988 . Snowfall in high southern latitudes . Rev. Geophys . 26 , 149 – 168 .
Bromwich , D. H. , Robasky , F. M. , Cullather , R. and Woert , M. L. V . 1995 . The atmospheric hydrologic cycle over the Southern Ocean and Antarctica from operational numerical analyses. Mon . Wea. Re v . 123 , 3518 – 3538 .
Budd , W. F. , Reid , P. A. and Minty , L. J . 1995 . Antarctic moisture flux and net accumulation from global atmo-spheric analyses . Ann. Glaciol . 21 , 149 – 156 .
Charles , C. D. , Rind , D. , Jouzel , J. , Koster , R. D. and Fairbanks , R. G . 1994 . Glacial-interglacial changes in moisture sources for Greenland: influences on the ice core record of climate . Science 263 , 508 – 511 .
Ciais , P. , White , J. W. C. , Jouzel , J. and Petit , J.-R . 1995 . The origin of present-day Antarctic precipitation from surface snow deuterium excess data . J. Geophys. Res . 100 , 18 917-18 927 .
CLIMAP , 1981 . Seasonal reconstruction of the Earth's surface at the last glacial maximum . Technical Report , Geol. Soc. Am .
Cuffey , K. M. , Clow , G. D. , Alley , R. B. , Stuiver , M. , Waddington , E. D. and Saltus , R. W . 1995 . Large Arctic temperature change at the Wisconsin-Holocene glacial transition . Science 270 , 455 – 458 .
Cullather , R. I. , Bromwich , D. H. and Woert , M. L. V . 1996 . Interannual variations in Antarctic precipitation related to El Nino-Southern oscillation . J. Geophys. Res . 101 , 19 109-19 118 .
Delmotte , M . 1997 . Enregistrements climatiques a Law Dome: variabilite, pour les périodes recentes et pour la deglaciation (in French) . PhD thesis. Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble I , France .
Dolgina , I. M. and Petrova , L. S . 1977 . In: Handbook of Antarctic climate , vol. 2 (in Russian). Hydrological Institute , St Petersburg , Russia .
Ganopolski , A. , Rahmstorf , S. , Petoukhov , V. and Claussen , M . 1998 . Simulation of modern and glacial climates with a coupled global model of intermediate complexity . Nature 391 , 351 – 356 .
Gates , W. L . 1992 . AMIP: The Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project . Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc . 73 , 1962 – 1970 .
Genthon , C . 1994 . Antarctic climate modeling with general circulation models of the atmosphere . J. Geophys. Res . 99 , 12 953-12 961 .
Giovinetto , M. B. , Yamazaki , K. , Wendler , G. and Bromwich , D. H . 1997 . Atmospheric net transport of water vapor and latent heat across 60°S . J. Geophys. Res . 102 , 11171-11 179 .
Hansen , J. E. , Russell , G. , Rind , D. , Stone , P. , Lacis , A. , Lebedeff , S. , Ruedy , R. and Travis , L . 1983 . Efficient three-dimensional global models for climate studies: Models I and II. Mon . Wea. Re v . 111 , 609 – 662 .
Hansen , J. , Lacis , A. , Rind , D. , Russell , G. , Stone , P. , Fung , I. , Ruedy , R. and Lerner , J . 1984 . Climate sensitivity: analysis of feedback mechanisms . In: Climate processes and climate sensitivity (ed. J. E. Hansen and T. Takahashi). AGU , Whashington D. C ., 130 – 163 .
Johnsen , S. J. , Dahl-Jensen , D. , Dansgaard , W. and Gundestrup , N . 1995 . Greenland palaeotemperatures derived from GRIP borehole temperature and ice core isotope profiles . Tellus 47B , 624 – 629 .
Jones , D. A. and Simmonds , I . 1993 . A climatology of Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones . Clim. Dyn . 9 , 131 – 145 .
Joussaume , S. , Sadourny , R. and Vignal , C . 1986 . Origin of precipitating water in a numerical simulation of the July climate . Ocean-Air Interactions 1 , 43 – 56 .
Jouzel , J. and Koster , R. D . 1996 . A reconsideration of the initial conditions used for stable water isotope models . J. Geophys. Res . 101 , 22 933-22 938 .
Jouzel , J. , Russell , G. L. , Suozzo , R. J. , Koster , R. D. , White , J. W. C. and Broecker , W. S . 1987 . Simulations of the HDO and HI' 0 atmospheric cycles using the NASA GISS general circulation model: the seasonal cycle for present-day conditions . J. Geophys. Res . 92 , 14 739-14 760 .
Jouzel , J. et al. 1996 . Climatic interpretation of the recently extended Vostok ice records . Clim. Dyn . 12 , 513 – 521 .
Jouzel , J. et al. 1997 . Validity of the temperature recon-struction from water isotopes in ice cores . J. Geophys. Res . 102 , 26 471-26 487 .
Kim , S.-J. , Crowley , T. J. and Stössel , A . 1998 . Local orbital forcing of Antarctic climate change during the Last Interglacial . Nature 280 , 728 – 730 .
Koster , R. D. , Jouzel , J. , Suozzo , R. , Russell , G. , Broecker , W. , Rind , D. and Eagleson , P . 1986 . Global sources of local precipitation as determined by the NASA/GISS GCM . Geophys. Res. Lett . 13 , 121 – 124 .
Koster , R. D. , Eagleson , P. S. and Broecker , W. S . 1988. Tracer water transport and subgrid precipitation variation within atmospheric general circulation models. Tech. Report no. 317, Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Dept. of Civil Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Koster , R. D. , Jouzel , J. , Suozzo , R. J. and Russell , G. L . 1992 . Origin of July Antarctic precipitation and its influence on deuterium content: a GCM analysis . Clim. Dyn . 7 , 195 – 203 .
Krinner , G. , Genthon , C. and Jouzel , J . 1997a . GCM analysis of local influences on ice core signals . Geo-phys. Res. Lett . 24 , 2825 – 2828 .
Krinner , G. , Genthon , C. , Li , Z.-X. and LeVan , P . 1997b . Studies of the Antarctic climate with a stretched-grid general circulation model . J. Geophys. Res . 102 , 13 731-13 745 .
Lorius , C. , Merlivat , L. , Jouzel , J. and Pourchet , M . 1979 . A 30,000-yr isotope climatic record from Antarctic ice . Nature 280 , 644 – 648 .
Miller , J. R. and Russell , G. L . 1990 . Oceanic freshwater transport during the last glacial maximum . Paleoceanography 5 , 397 – 407 .
Peixoto , J. P. and Oort , A. H . 1983 . The atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle and climate. In: Variations in the global water budget (eds. A. Street-Perrott, M. Beran and R. Ratcliffe). D. Reidel, 5-65, 1983. Petit, J.-R., White, J. W. C., Young, N. W., Jouzel, J. and Korotkevich, Y. S. 1991. Deuterium excess in recent Antarctic snow . J. Geophys. Res . 96 , 5113 – 5122 .
Petit , J.-R. et al. 1997 . Four climate cycles in Vostok ice core . Nature 387 , 359 – 360 .
Pinot , S. , Ramstein , G. , Harrison , S. P. , Prentice , I. C. , Guiot , J. , Stute , M. and Joussaume , S . 1999 . Tropical paleoclimates at the last glacial maximum: comparison of PMIP simulations and paleodata . Clim. Dyn . 15 , 857 – 874 .
Raynaud , D. , Jouzel , J. , Barnola , J.-M. , Chappellaz , J. , Delmas , R. J. and Lorius , C . 1993 . The ice record of greenhouse gases . Science 259 , 926 – 934 .
Reynolds , R. W . 1988 . A real time global sea-surface temperature analysis . J. Clim . 1 , 75 – 86 .
Rind , D. and Peteet , D . 1985 . Terrestrial conditions at the last glacial maximum and CLIMAP sea-surface temperature estimates: are they consistent? Quat. Res . 24 , 1 – 22 .
Rind , D . 1987 . Components of the Ice Age circulation . J. Geophys. Res . 92 , 4241 – 4281 .
Salamatin , A. N. , Lipenkov , V. Y. , Barkov , N. I. , Jouzel , J. , Petit , J.-R. and Raynaud , D . 1998 . Ice-core age dating and palaeothermometer calibration based on isotope and temperature profiles from deep boreholes at Vostok station (East Antarctica) . J. Geophys. Res . 103 , 8963 – 8978 .
Turner , J. , Lachlan-Cope , T. A. , Thomas , J. P. and Colwell , S . 1995 . The synoptic origins of precipitation over the Antarctic Peninsula . Antarctic. Sci . 7 , 327 – 337 .
Tzeng , R.-Y. , Bromwich , D. H. , Parish , T. R. and Chen , B . 1994. NCAR CCM2 simulation of the modern Antarctic climate. J. Geophys. Res . 99 , 23 131-23 148. Warrick, R. A., Le Provost, C., Meier, M. F., Oerlemans, J. and Woodworth, P. L. 1996. Changes in the sea level. In: Climate change 1995: The science of climate change, IPCC (eds. J. T. Houghton, L. G. Meira Filho, B. A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg and K. Maskell). Cambridge University Press , Cambridge UK , 359 – 405
Yiou , F. , Raisbeck , G. , Bourles , D. , Lorius , C. and Barkov , N. I . 1985 . 'Be in ice at Vostok, Antarctica, during the last climatic cycle . Nature 316 , 616 – 617 .

[CIT0001] Berger , A. L . 1978 . Long-term variations of daily insolation and Quaternary climatic changes. J. Atmos. Sc i . 35 , 2362 – 2367 .

[CIT0002] Blunier , T. et al. 1998 . Asynchrony of Antarctic and Greenland climate change during the last glacial period . Nature 394 , 739 – 743 .

[CIT0003] Broecker , W. S . 1997 . Thermohaline circulation, the Achilles heel of our climate system : will man-made CO2 upset the current balance? Science 278 , 1582 – 1588 .

[CIT0004] Bromwich , D. H . 1988 . Snowfall in high southern latitudes . Rev. Geophys . 26 , 149 – 168 .

[CIT0005] Bromwich , D. H. , Robasky , F. M. , Cullather , R. and Woert , M. L. V . 1995 . The atmospheric hydrologic cycle over the Southern Ocean and Antarctica from operational numerical analyses. Mon . Wea. Re v . 123 , 3518 – 3538 .

[CIT0006] Budd , W. F. , Reid , P. A. and Minty , L. J . 1995 . Antarctic moisture flux and net accumulation from global atmo-spheric analyses . Ann. Glaciol . 21 , 149 – 156 .

[CIT0007] Charles , C. D. , Rind , D. , Jouzel , J. , Koster , R. D. and Fairbanks , R. G . 1994 . Glacial-interglacial changes in moisture sources for Greenland: influences on the ice core record of climate . Science 263 , 508 – 511 .

[CIT0008] Ciais , P. , White , J. W. C. , Jouzel , J. and Petit , J.-R . 1995 . The origin of present-day Antarctic precipitation from surface snow deuterium excess data . J. Geophys. Res . 100 , 18 917-18 927 .

[CIT0009] CLIMAP , 1981 . Seasonal reconstruction of the Earth's surface at the last glacial maximum . Technical Report , Geol. Soc. Am .

[CIT0010] Cuffey , K. M. , Clow , G. D. , Alley , R. B. , Stuiver , M. , Waddington , E. D. and Saltus , R. W . 1995 . Large Arctic temperature change at the Wisconsin-Holocene glacial transition . Science 270 , 455 – 458 .

[CIT0011] Cullather , R. I. , Bromwich , D. H. and Woert , M. L. V . 1996 . Interannual variations in Antarctic precipitation related to El Nino-Southern oscillation . J. Geophys. Res . 101 , 19 109-19 118 .

[CIT0012] Delmotte , M . 1997 . Enregistrements climatiques a Law Dome: variabilite, pour les périodes recentes et pour la deglaciation (in French) . PhD thesis. Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble I , France .

[CIT0013] Dolgina , I. M. and Petrova , L. S . 1977 . In: Handbook of Antarctic climate , vol. 2 (in Russian). Hydrological Institute , St Petersburg , Russia .

[CIT0014] Ganopolski , A. , Rahmstorf , S. , Petoukhov , V. and Claussen , M . 1998 . Simulation of modern and glacial climates with a coupled global model of intermediate complexity . Nature 391 , 351 – 356 .

[CIT0015] Gates , W. L . 1992 . AMIP: The Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project . Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc . 73 , 1962 – 1970 .

[CIT0016] Genthon , C . 1994 . Antarctic climate modeling with general circulation models of the atmosphere . J. Geophys. Res . 99 , 12 953-12 961 .

[CIT0017] Giovinetto , M. B. , Yamazaki , K. , Wendler , G. and Bromwich , D. H . 1997 . Atmospheric net transport of water vapor and latent heat across 60°S . J. Geophys. Res . 102 , 11171-11 179 .

[CIT0018] Hansen , J. E. , Russell , G. , Rind , D. , Stone , P. , Lacis , A. , Lebedeff , S. , Ruedy , R. and Travis , L . 1983 . Efficient three-dimensional global models for climate studies: Models I and II. Mon . Wea. Re v . 111 , 609 – 662 .

[CIT0019] Hansen , J. , Lacis , A. , Rind , D. , Russell , G. , Stone , P. , Fung , I. , Ruedy , R. and Lerner , J . 1984 . Climate sensitivity: analysis of feedback mechanisms . In: Climate processes and climate sensitivity (ed. J. E. Hansen and T. Takahashi). AGU , Whashington D. C ., 130 – 163 .

[CIT0020] Johnsen , S. J. , Dahl-Jensen , D. , Dansgaard , W. and Gundestrup , N . 1995 . Greenland palaeotemperatures derived from GRIP borehole temperature and ice core isotope profiles . Tellus 47B , 624 – 629 .

[CIT0021] Jones , D. A. and Simmonds , I . 1993 . A climatology of Southern Hemisphere extratropical cyclones . Clim. Dyn . 9 , 131 – 145 .

[CIT0022] Joussaume , S. , Sadourny , R. and Vignal , C . 1986 . Origin of precipitating water in a numerical simulation of the July climate . Ocean-Air Interactions 1 , 43 – 56 .

[CIT0023] Jouzel , J. and Koster , R. D . 1996 . A reconsideration of the initial conditions used for stable water isotope models . J. Geophys. Res . 101 , 22 933-22 938 .

[CIT0024] Jouzel , J. , Russell , G. L. , Suozzo , R. J. , Koster , R. D. , White , J. W. C. and Broecker , W. S . 1987 . Simulations of the HDO and HI' 0 atmospheric cycles using the NASA GISS general circulation model: the seasonal cycle for present-day conditions . J. Geophys. Res . 92 , 14 739-14 760 .

[CIT0025] Jouzel , J. et al. 1996 . Climatic interpretation of the recently extended Vostok ice records . Clim. Dyn . 12 , 513 – 521 .

[CIT0026] Jouzel , J. et al. 1997 . Validity of the temperature recon-struction from water isotopes in ice cores . J. Geophys. Res . 102 , 26 471-26 487 .

[CIT0027] Kim , S.-J. , Crowley , T. J. and Stössel , A . 1998 . Local orbital forcing of Antarctic climate change during the Last Interglacial . Nature 280 , 728 – 730 .

[CIT0028] Koster , R. D. , Jouzel , J. , Suozzo , R. , Russell , G. , Broecker , W. , Rind , D. and Eagleson , P . 1986 . Global sources of local precipitation as determined by the NASA/GISS GCM . Geophys. Res. Lett . 13 , 121 – 124 .

[CIT0029] Koster , R. D. , Eagleson , P. S. and Broecker , W. S . 1988. Tracer water transport and subgrid precipitation variation within atmospheric general circulation models. Tech. Report no. 317, Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Dept. of Civil Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

[CIT0030] Koster , R. D. , Jouzel , J. , Suozzo , R. J. and Russell , G. L . 1992 . Origin of July Antarctic precipitation and its influence on deuterium content: a GCM analysis . Clim. Dyn . 7 , 195 – 203 .

[CIT0031] Krinner , G. , Genthon , C. and Jouzel , J . 1997a . GCM analysis of local influences on ice core signals . Geo-phys. Res. Lett . 24 , 2825 – 2828 .

[CIT0032] Krinner , G. , Genthon , C. , Li , Z.-X. and LeVan , P . 1997b . Studies of the Antarctic climate with a stretched-grid general circulation model . J. Geophys. Res . 102 , 13 731-13 745 .

[CIT0033] Lorius , C. , Merlivat , L. , Jouzel , J. and Pourchet , M . 1979 . A 30,000-yr isotope climatic record from Antarctic ice . Nature 280 , 644 – 648 .

[CIT0034] Miller , J. R. and Russell , G. L . 1990 . Oceanic freshwater transport during the last glacial maximum . Paleoceanography 5 , 397 – 407 .

[CIT0035] Peixoto , J. P. and Oort , A. H . 1983 . The atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle and climate. In: Variations in the global water budget (eds. A. Street-Perrott, M. Beran and R. Ratcliffe). D. Reidel, 5-65, 1983. Petit, J.-R., White, J. W. C., Young, N. W., Jouzel, J. and Korotkevich, Y. S. 1991. Deuterium excess in recent Antarctic snow . J. Geophys. Res . 96 , 5113 – 5122 .

[CIT0036] Petit , J.-R. et al. 1997 . Four climate cycles in Vostok ice core . Nature 387 , 359 – 360 .

[CIT0037] Pinot , S. , Ramstein , G. , Harrison , S. P. , Prentice , I. C. , Guiot , J. , Stute , M. and Joussaume , S . 1999 . Tropical paleoclimates at the last glacial maximum: comparison of PMIP simulations and paleodata . Clim. Dyn . 15 , 857 – 874 .

[CIT0038] Raynaud , D. , Jouzel , J. , Barnola , J.-M. , Chappellaz , J. , Delmas , R. J. and Lorius , C . 1993 . The ice record of greenhouse gases . Science 259 , 926 – 934 .

[CIT0039] Reynolds , R. W . 1988 . A real time global sea-surface temperature analysis . J. Clim . 1 , 75 – 86 .

[CIT0040] Rind , D. and Peteet , D . 1985 . Terrestrial conditions at the last glacial maximum and CLIMAP sea-surface temperature estimates: are they consistent? Quat. Res . 24 , 1 – 22 .

[CIT0041] Rind , D . 1987 . Components of the Ice Age circulation . J. Geophys. Res . 92 , 4241 – 4281 .

[CIT0042] Salamatin , A. N. , Lipenkov , V. Y. , Barkov , N. I. , Jouzel , J. , Petit , J.-R. and Raynaud , D . 1998 . Ice-core age dating and palaeothermometer calibration based on isotope and temperature profiles from deep boreholes at Vostok station (East Antarctica) . J. Geophys. Res . 103 , 8963 – 8978 .

[CIT0043] Turner , J. , Lachlan-Cope , T. A. , Thomas , J. P. and Colwell , S . 1995 . The synoptic origins of precipitation over the Antarctic Peninsula . Antarctic. Sci . 7 , 327 – 337 .

[CIT0044] Tzeng , R.-Y. , Bromwich , D. H. , Parish , T. R. and Chen , B . 1994. NCAR CCM2 simulation of the modern Antarctic climate. J. Geophys. Res . 99 , 23 131-23 148. Warrick, R. A., Le Provost, C., Meier, M. F., Oerlemans, J. and Woodworth, P. L. 1996. Changes in the sea level. In: Climate change 1995: The science of climate change, IPCC (eds. J. T. Houghton, L. G. Meira Filho, B. A. Callander, N. Harris, A. Kattenberg and K. Maskell). Cambridge University Press , Cambridge UK , 359 – 405

[CIT0045] Yiou , F. , Raisbeck , G. , Bourles , D. , Lorius , C. and Barkov , N. I . 1985 . 'Be in ice at Vostok, Antarctica, during the last climatic cycle . Nature 316 , 616 – 617 .

Reading: The origin of Antarctic precipitation: a modelling approach

Original Research Papers

The origin of Antarctic precipitation: a modelling approach

Authors:

Gilles Delaygue ,

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), FR

About Gilles

X close

Valérie Masson,

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), FR

X close

Jean Jouzel,

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), FR

X close

Randal D. Koster,

Hydrological Sciences Branch, Laboratory for Hydrospheric Processes, US

X close

Richard J. Healy

Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry, US

X close

Abstract

References