The Hydroclimate of Antarctica

南极大气水循环将淡水输入南大洋。海洋对流翻转的强度(经线翻转环流)及其对热量上升的影响在很大程度上是由这些淡水水源决定的。了解水循环对于估计南大洋的海洋热吸收和确定南极海冰在过去30年中扩张的原因是至关重要的，这与北极明显不同。水文循环反过来又与气候密切相关。降水影响海冰的反照率，取决于它是降雪还是降雨，并为南大洋提供淡水，而海冰和海面温度影响蒸发和大气环流，以及它们与南极洲水汽和热量输送的关联。最终的集成将利用这些模型的改进来归因于过去~30年来南大洋和南极的气候变化。该项目促进了对过去和未来气候变化的理解，这些变化是由温室气体浓度上升和臭氧消耗造成的。这一结果将为未来对南极冰块平衡和由此导致的全球海平面上升的预测提供信息。

The Antarctic atmospheric water cycle couples freshwater input to the Southern Ocean. The strength of ocean convective overturning (the meridonal overturning circulation) and its influence on the upwelling of heat is governed in large part by these freshwater sources. Understanding the water cycle is fundamental to estimating ocean heat uptake in the Southern Ocean and determining why Antarctic sea ice has expanded in the last ~30 years, notably different from the Arctic. The hydrologic cycle is in turn strongly coupled to the climate. Precipitation influences the albedo of sea ice, depending on whether it falls as snow or rain, and contributes freshwater to the Southern Ocean, while sea ice and sea surface temperature influence evaporation and atmospheric circulation and their association with moisture and heat transport to Antarctica.A series of sensitivity experiments are proposed to gain understanding of the system and test means of improving model biases. The ultimate integration will utilize these model improvements to attribute Southern Ocean and Antarctic climate change over the last ~30 yearsThe project advances understanding of past and future climate change from rising greenhouse gas concentrations and ozone depletion. The results will inform future projections of Antarctic ice mass balance and the resulting global sea level rise.