Seasonal Spatial Pressure Reconstructions Across Antarctica Extending Throughout the Entire 20th Century

Much research has been focused on Antarctic climate change in recent decades, with considerable focus on temperature trends across the continent. A growing body of literature however is demonstrating the relationship between atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere and its effects on climatic change over the Antarctic continent and the Southern Ocean. To fully understand atmospheric circulations, studying the atmospheric pressure pattern is paramount. Unfortunately, prior to ~1957, observations are minimal across Antarctica and even after the International Geophysical Year (1957/58), observations across the continent are mostly limited to the Peninsula and coastal regions, as these areas are most accessible. Furthermore, prior to the modern satellite era, global reanalyses are not reliable in the high-southern latitudes, given the very little in situ data to constrain the reanalysis model solutions across the high southern latitudes. Therefore, a primary way to help understand current and future changes in the high-southern latitudes is to use reconstructions. This presentation will discuss a spatially and temporally complete seasonal pressure reconstruction that extends back throughout the 20^th century beginning in 1905. These reconstructions are not only useful to fill observational gaps across the continent throughout the 20^th century, but will also help in our understanding of recent circulation changes over the Antarctic Plateau and in West Antarctica, where observations today are very sparse.