The air annual average temperature in the Brazilian Antarctic Station has fallen about - 0.6 ° C per decade if considered the last 14 years. The downward trend, recorded by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), can be found, for instance, in the years 2007 and 2009, when the bitter winter froze the two freshwater lakes that supply the station. In the years 1995, 2007 and 2009, the extent of ice covering the “Almirantado” Bay during the winter, reached the maximum level.
Since 1986, when they began the data collection in the Brazilian Antarctic Station, with the exception of those in 1987, the lowest temperatures in winter (June-July-August) occurred in the last 14 years. In 1995, for example, the average winter was -10.3 ° C. In 2007 and 2009, -8.5 ° C.
During 2009, temperatures were below average, except for January and March. The minimum air temperature, -25.6 ° C, occurred on August 5, and for 18 years the minimum temperature in that month was not below -25 º C”, says the researcher Alberto Setzer, INPE.
It should be noted that the climate in this region has large interannual variability, having alternating years of hotter and colder temperature. Because of these significant changes, which on average reach about 3 º C in the intermediate degree between each year, it is very difficult to forecast temperatures even for the next year.
“If we consider the annual averages for the last 65 years in the region, there was a +0.23 C medium heating per decade. However, for the past 29 years, that from a realistically point of view it makes 30-years of a conventional climatology pattern. The average data shows stability, without any evidence of global warming”, concludes the INPE’s researcher about the temperature in Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station.
Check out the graphics:
http://antartica.cptec.inpe.br/~rantar/data/resumos/climatolbaia.xls
http://antartica.cptec.inpe.br/~rantar/data/resumos/climatoleacf.xls
INPE’s performance in Antarctica
Along with other Brazilian institutions, INPE has been conducting research in Antarctica for over 25 years. Its studies in the region focus on the atmosphere’s dynamic, the ozone layer, weather, global warming, greenhouse gases, ultraviolet radiation, the sun-atmosphere relation, pollutant transportation, oceanography and ocean-atmosphere interaction.
The INPE’s weather monitoring project in Comandante Ferraz region has ensured the continuity of the meteorological records of the Brazilian Antarctic Program (PROANTAR), whose operations are coordinated by the Secretariat of the Interministerial Commission for Sea Resources (SECIRM).
This project consists of the regular collection of meteorological data, satellite images and the generation of products of numerical weather prediction. This information is analyzed to identify climate variations in the area as well as the Antarctic conditions with the Brazilian south and southeastern areas. Data are available at: http://antartica.cptec.inpe.br.
