Mb. Giovinetto et al., ATMOSPHERIC NET TRANSPORT OF WATER-VAPOR AND LATENT-HEAT ACROSS 60-DEGREES-S, JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, 102(D10), 1997, pp. 11171-11179
The mean annual moisture flux across 60 degrees S is estimated using r
esults of numerical analyses produced by the U. S. National Centers fo
r Environmental Prediction and the European Centre for Medium-Range We
ather Forecasts for the 7-year period 1985-1991. The atmospheric data
indicate a net poleward transport of 17.06 kg m(-1) s(-1) or 10.74 Tt
yr(-1). The mean annual moisture transport divergence for the area pol
eward of 60 degrees S is estimated using a combination of surface and
near-surface data (precipitation and evaporation for the Southern Ocea
n, net surface accumulation and seaward drifting snow transport for th
e Antarctic ice sheet). The mass exchange rates at the ice sheet-atmos
phere and ocean-atmosphere interfaces are integrated strictly for the
area between 60 degrees S and 70 degrees S and are combined with the r
esults of a preceding surface data estimate of transport divergence fo
r the area poleward of 70 degrees S. The surface data are a combinatio
n of diverse sets representative of various multiyear periods distribu
ted through 1941-1990 and indicate a poleward transport of 18.60 kg m(
-1) s(-1) or 11.79 Tt yr(-1) across 60 degrees S. The estimates based
on atmospheric and surface data show remarkable agreement (the differe
nce is well within the error estimates) and indicate net atmospheric t
ransports of water vapor and latent heat poleward across 60 degrees S
of 17.8 kg m(-1) s(-1) and 50 MJ m(-1) s(-1), respectively.