Atmospheric blockings associated with the extreme variability of Antarctic sea ice and impacts in South America

• Grant number: 12/17370-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): April 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Meteorology
• Principal researcher: Tercio Ambrizzi
• Grantee: Camila Bertoletti Carpenedo
• Home Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The South America has an economy highly dependent on agriculture. The close link between agricultural production and weather conditions causes extreme weather events at producing regions have highly damaging effects. Among these phenomena, highlights are the atmospheric blockings, which are phenomena of persistent and systematic nature, affecting the normal propagation of transients systems and consequently the weather and climate in some continental regions through adverse weather conditions. Therefore, a better understanding of the mechanisms which cause, keeps and dissipate this phenomenon are of great importance for the successful prediction of short, medium and long term. The blocking events in the Southern Hemisphere occur mainly between latitudes 50° and 65° S and during the winter and spring months, exactly at the period of higher extent of Antarctic sea ice, which reaches latitudes around 55° S in the Indian Ocean region during September. It highlighted that the sea ice plays an important role in the variability and regional and global climatic conditions through dynamic and thermodynamic processes, and feedback mechanisms. In this sense, interactions between the Antarctic sea ice and atmospheric blockings in the Southern Hemisphere probably exist, although little is known about such relationships. Thus, the main purpose of this work is to understand the relationships between the atmospheric blockings in the Southeast Pacific and Southwest Atlantic and the extreme variability of Antarctic sea ice. In addition, we intend to analyze the impact on South America. For that, detailed statistical analysis will be conducted using data from the ERA-Interim reanalysis, ocean data from NOAA/OAR/PSD ESRL and simulations with the coupled models of the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) of the IPCC.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CAMILA BERTOLETTI CARPENEDO; TÉRCIO AMBRIZZI. Células de Circulação Meridional Durante os Eventos Extremos de Gelo Marinho Antártico. Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia, v. 31, n. 3, p. 251-261, Set. 2016.