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Coastal polynyas are produced in the Antarctic by katabatic winds. Katabatic winds are for example found blowing out from the large and elevated ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. The buildup of high density cold air over the ice sheets and the elevation of the ice sheets brings into play enormous gravitational energy.
Katabatic wind [ edit ] Commonwealth Bay is listed in both the Guinness Book of World Records and the Eighth Edition of the National Geographic Atlas as the windiest place on Earth, with winds regularly exceeding 240 kilometres (150 mi) per hour and an average annual wind speed of 80 kilometres (50 mi) per hour.
McMurdo Sound experiences katabatic winds from the Antarctic polar plateau. McMurdo Sound freezes over with sea ice about 3 metres (9.8 ft) thick during the winter. During the austral summer when the pack ice breaks up, wind and currents may push the ice northward into the Ross Sea, stirring up cold bottom currents that spill into the ocean basins.
Heavy snowfalls are common on the coastal portion of Antarctica, where snowfalls of up to 1.22 m (48 in) in 48 hours have been recorded. At the continent's edge, strong katabatic winds off the polar plateau often blow at storm force.
The climate in Terra Nova Bay is mostly dominated by the katabatic winds that blow off the David, Reeves and Priestly glaciers and Nansen Ice shelf. [7] Temperatures recorded by weather stations around Zucchelli Station, the Italian base, are between +2 and −20 °C (36 and −4 °F) in January and between −20 and −30 °C (−4 and −22 °F) in the winter months.
Coastal polynyas are produced in the Antarctic by katabatic winds Katabatic wind spilling off an ice shelf A frosty Arctic condensation plume marks this polynya near the west shore of Hudson Bay. This one (and others nearby) are likely kept open by tidal currents. Mile-high west-facing aerial view.
It was discovered in 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911–14) under Douglas Mawson, who named it for Sir Hugh Denison of Sydney, a patron of the expedition. The cape was the site of the expedition's main base. [1] Called by Mawson "the windiest place on Earth", the site experiences fierce katabatic winds. [2]
The Drygalski Ice Tongue is stable by the standards of Antarctica's icefloes, and stretches 70 kilometres (43 mi) out to sea from the David Glacier, reaching the sea from a valley in the Prince Albert Mountains of Victoria Land. The Drygalski Ice Tongue ranges from 14 to 24 kilometres (9 to 15 mi) wide.