Fig. 1: Changes in Antarctic atmospheric circulation patterns and air temperature.
Top, Antarctica as seen from space with illustration of mechanisms discussed by Clem and colleagues9. Stronger westerlies driven by warming, combined with tropical teleconnections from the negative phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, produce enhanced cyclonic activity in the Weddell Sea (dark blue arrows). This increases the advection of warm moist air into the high Antarctic interior (red arrows), but shifts wind direction over the Peninsula, slowing the warming there. Bottom, mean annual air temperatures at Faraday/Vernadsky Station and the South Pole (locations shown in top image). Near-record lows (1983, 1987, 1993, 1997 and 1999) and highs (2002, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2018) are identified in the South Pole series with blue and red squares, respectively.
