Antartica

Running head: ENVIRONMENT

Challenging Forecast for a Challenging Environment

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Challenging Forecast for a Challenging Environment

The Antarctic treaty in 1959 set aside the Antarctica continent so that scientific research and ecological protection could be conducted on this continent. Accurate and timely weather forecasts are important for the scientists and the support personnel who live and work in this continent. The research at the Antarctica is even more important as this continent has an effect on the global climate.

Antarctica weather is different from the other continents weather because it is the driest, coldest and the windiest continent on earth. The winds create blizzards and life threatening wind chill temperatures. According to Dr. John Cassano an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, the weather conditions in this continent are driven by the same processes as the weather in the rest of the planet. Antarctic is characterized by coreless winter; the continent is an ice sheet and has near surface wind fields which are influenced by the topography of the continent.

The methods used to collect data in this continent include; metrological observations, use of satellite data and products, use of computer models that take in the observations, calculate the physical processes in the air and give the output.

The Antarctica weather influences the global climate as the temperature gradient between the tropics and the polar region is the driver of the earth’s climate and the Antarctica climate has effects that go beyond this region. The understanding of this helps us to predict the future changes in the global climate. Although climate models help us to predict some of the changes, further research is needed so as to predict how the Antarctic climate changes and is changed by other atmospheric processes on earth