Km. Hines et al., A MESOSCALE MODELING STUDY OF THE ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION OF HIGH SOUTHERN LATITUDES, Monthly weather review, 123(4), 1995, pp. 1146-1165
The meteorology of high southern latitudes during winter is simulated
using a cloud-free version of The Pennsylvania State University-Nation
al Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model version 4 (MM4) wit
h a 100-km horizontal resolution. Comparisons between idealized simula
tions of Antarctica with MM4 and with the mesoscale model of Parish an
d Waight reveal that both models produce similarly realistic velocity
fields in the boundary layer. The latter model tends to produce slight
ly faster drainage winds over East Antarctica. The intensity of the ka
tabatic winds produced by MM4 is sensitive to parameterizations of bou
ndary layer fluxes. Two simulations are performed with MM4 using analy
ses from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts for Ju
ne 1988 as initial and boundary conditions. A simulation of the period
from 0000 UTC 2 June to 0000 UTC 8 June produces realistic synoptic p
henomena including ridge development over East Antarctica, frontogenes
is over the Amundsen Sea, and a katabatic surge over the Ross Ice Shel
f. The simulated time-averaged fields for June 1988, particularly that
of a 500-hPa height, are in good agreement with time-averaged fields
analyzed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Th
e results of the simulations provide detailed features of the Antarcti
c winter boundary layer along the steeply sloping terrain. Highest bou
ndary layer wind speeds averaged over the month-long simulation are ap
proximately 20 m s(-1). The lack of latent heating in the simulations
apparently results in some bias in the results. In particular, the clo
ud-free version of MM4 underpredicts the intensity of lows in the sea
level pressure field.