Abstract:
This dataset documents the trends and variability in the latitude and strength of the belt of lower-atmosphere westerly winds over the Southern Ocean, referred to as the 'westerly jet'. Time series of annual mean and seasonal diagnostics are available for the period 1979-present, specifically time series of seasonal and annual mean jet latitude and strength. The diagnostics are derived from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis (for more information see www.ecmwf.int and Dee et al. (2011)), which is an observationally-constrained reconstruction of atmospheric conditions. The broad characterisation of the westerly winds into these simple diagnostics has been found to be useful for understanding long-term climate change due to contrasting drivers of change and impacts on other aspects of the climate system.
This is an index of winds around the full circumference of all longitudes at Southern Hemisphere middle latitudes. The exact latitude depends on the position of the jet at any given time, but on average the jet (the core of the westerlies) is located at approximately 52 deg S.
Keywords:
Antarctica, Climate, Southern Ocean, Westerly winds
Bracegirdle, T. (2018). Southern Hemisphere tropospheric westerly jet: 1979-present (Version None) [Data set]. Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK. https://doi.org/10.5285/3952a4fe-683a-42e7-a074-bdec41c8ab16
| Access Constraints: | No restrictions apply. |
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| Use Constraints: | This data is supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ |
| Creation Date: | 2018-01-31 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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| Personnel: | |
| Name | UK PDC |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Name | Dr Thomas J Bracegirdle |
| Role(s) | Investigator, Technical Contact |
| Organisation | British Antarctic Survey |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Bracegirdle, T. J., P. Hyder, and C. R. Holmes (2018), CMIP5 diversity in southern westerly jet projections related to historical sea ice area; strong link to strengthening and weak link to shift, J. Clim., 31, 195-211, doi: 10.1175/jcli-d-17-0320.1 Dee, D. P., Uppala, S. M., Simmons, A. J., Berrisford, P., Poli, P., Kobayashi, S., Andrae, U., Balmaseda, M. A., Balsamo, G., Bauer, P., Bechtold, P., Beljaars, A. C. M., van de Berg, L., Bidlot, J., Bormann, N., Delsol, C., Dragani, R., Fuentes, M., Geer, A. J., Haimberger, L., Healy, S. B., Hersbach, H., Hólm, E. V., Isaksen, L., Kållberg, P., Köhler, M., Matricardi, M., McNally, A. P., Monge-Sanz, B. M., Morcrette, J.-J., Park, B.-K., Peubey, C., de Rosnay, P., Tavolato, C., Thépaut, J.-N. and Vitart, F. (2011), The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system. Q.J.R. Meteorol. Soc., 137: 553-597. doi:10.1002/qj.828 |
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| Quality: | A description of the technical aspects of the underlying ERA-Interim dataset are available in Dee et al. (2011). | |
| Lineage: | This dataset is created from diagnostics of a pre-existing dataset, the above-mentioned ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis. | |
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 1979-01-01 |
| End Date | N/A |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -60 |
| Northernmost | -30 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -180 |
| Easternmost | 180 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Southern Ocean |
| Data Storage: | These data are approximately 5 kB and stored as 10 .txt files. The files names refer to seasonal or annual data of the latitude or strength of the jet, where: ann = Annual djf = December January February mam = March April May jja = June July August son = September October November |
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