|  Linwood
Creekmore
Mentor:
Ashwin Mahesh, Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center
Internship: Goddard Space Flight Center,
Howard University Fellowship in Atmospheric Sciences, Washington,
DC
Title: The Antarctic Standard Atmosphere
Climate
models often rely on standard atmospheres to represent various
regions. These broadly capture the important physical and
radiative characteristics of the regional atmosphere, and
become a common benchmark from which simulations can be undertaken.
In 1972 standard atmospheric models were created for the tropical,
mid-latitude summer, mid-latitude winter, sub-arctic summer,
and sub-arctic winter regions of the planet (McClatchey et
al, 1972). The Antarctic is the last un-represented region
in the list of standard atmospheres currently available. Because
the high southern latitudes represent an endpoint in terrestrial
climate – this coldest and driest place on Earth –
there are no similar regions from which data can be used to
represent Antarctica. Moreover, the surface energy balance
of the Antarctic is largely determined by the downward longwave
radiation, as this is the least known and most variable of
the contributing terms. The longwave depends on the atmospheric
profiles of temperature and constituent gases. To represent
this properly in climate models, profiles of Antarctica that
capture the seasonal variations in the atmosphere must be
created. Using radiosondes, ozonesondes, and other data from
South Pole station, typical profiles for the four seasons
will be put together. Together these will constitute the standard
profiles of the atmosphere over the Antarctic Plateau. These
will be fed into radiative transfer models to determine the
sensitivity of climate model calculations to the input profiles.
|
