EXPARII – Exploring precipitation in Antarctica and the role of Atmospheric Rivers

Coordinator

Irina Gorodetskaya

Programme

Programa Polar Português

Dates

01/09/2017 - 30/09/2018

Funding for CESAM

1200 €

Total Funding

1200 €

Participating Institutions

  • EPFL and ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
  • WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA)

The increased moisture availability in the warmer climate can lead to significant increase in precipitation and consequently surface mass balance over the Antarctic ice sheet according to climate modeling studies. In East Antarctica, large increase in the snowfall and surface mass balance has been observed in the recent years. Also freshening of the Southern Ocean has been related to the increase in precipitation. Atmospheric rivers associated with long-range moisture transport and extratropical weather systems, can be responsible for this increase in precipitation both over the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet. In this project, we use unique measurements acquired over the Southern Ocean during the past year in order to gain better insight in snowfall microphysics and precipitation rates and mechanisms behind.