Annual cycles of pressure, temperature, absolute humidity and precipitable water from the radiosoundings performed at Dome C, Antarctica, over the 2005―2009 period

• Published in: Antarctic science Vol. 24; no. 6; pp. 637 - 658
• Main Authors: TOMASI, Claudio, PETKOV, Boyan H, BENEDETTI, Elena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.12.2012
• Subjects: Absolute humidity; Algorithms; Atmosphere; Budgets; Climate; Earth, ocean, space; Environmental conditions; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; General properties of the high atmosphere; Meteorology; Other topics in atmospheric geophysics; Physics of the high neutral atmosphere; Relative humidity; Sensors; Stratosphere; Summer; Temperature; Tropopause; Troposphere; Winter; polar regions; Antarctica; East Antarctica; PS, Antarctica; Antarctica, East Antarctica, Antarctic Plateau, Dome C; Absolute humidity; atmospheric water; Time series; radiosonde data; troposphere; seasonal temperatures; Temperature reversal; atmospheric pressure; annual variations; ice sheets; Atmospheric temperature; temperature inversion; Tropopause; Precipitable water; Observation data; Polar region; Antarctic tropopause; stratosphere; Atmospheric humidity; Radio sounding
• ISSN: 0954-1020; 1365-2079
• DOI: 10.1017/S0954102012000405

Abstract A four-year set of vertical profiles of pressure, temperature and relative humidity derived from 1113 radiosoundings performed at Dome C (Antarctica) at 12h00 UT of each day, from late March 2005 to the end of March 2009, was examined by following a complex procedure for removing the most important lag errors and dry biases from the temperature and moisture data. The analysis provides evidence of annual cycles over the four years, characterizing the pressure and temperature conditions at the surface and at the various troposphere and low stratosphere levels, with maxima in summer and wide minima in winter for both parameters. Specific studies of the thermal parameters characterizing the ground layer and the tropopause region are also presented to describe their annual average variations. The analysis of moisture parameters indicates that absolute humidity varies regularly with season within the low troposphere, presenting well marked peaks in the summer months. Consequently, precipitable water was found to vary regularly during the year, from values of 0.2–0.4 mm in the winter to more than 0.6 mm in summer. The main year-to-year variations characterizing the monthly mean vertical profiles of pressure, temperature and moisture parameters are also described.