Ri. Cullather et al., SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF ANTARCTIC PRECIPITATION FROM ATMOSPHERIC METHODS, Journal of climate, 11(3), 1998, pp. 334-367
The spatial and temporal variability of net precipitation (precipitati
on minus evaporation/sublimation) for Antarctica derived from the Euro
pean Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts operational analyses vi
a the atmospheric moisture budget is assessed in comparison to a varie
ty of glaciological and meteorological observations and datasets. For
the 11-yr period 1985-95, the average continental value is 151 mm yr(-
1) water equivalent. Large regional differences with other datasets ar
e identified, and the sources of error are considered. Interannual var
iability in the Southern Ocean storm tracks is found to be an importan
t mechanism for enhanced precipitation minus evaporation (P - E) in bo
th east and west Antarctica. In relation to the present findings, an e
valuation of the rawinsonde method for estimating net precipitation in
east Antarctica is conducted. Estimates of P - E using synthetic rawi
nsondes derived from the analyses are found to compare favorably to gl
aciological estimates. A significant upward trend of 2.4 mm yr(-1) is
found for the Antarctic continent that is consistent with findings fro
m the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, formerly the Nati
onal Meteorological Center, and the National Center for Atmospheric Re
search Reanalysis precipitation dataset. Despite large regional discre
pancies, the general agreement on the main features of Antarctic preci
pitation between studies suggests that a threshold has been reached, w
here the assessment of the smaller terms including evaporation/sublima
tion and drift snow loss is required to explain the differences.