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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.
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.
The unique conditions in the Dry Valleys are caused, in part, by katabatic winds; these occur when cold, dense air is pulled downhill by the force of gravity. The dry wind evaporates the snow rapidly and little melts into the soil. During the summer, this process can take only hours. Another important factor is a lack of precipitation.
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.
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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.
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.
A 2022 study by Nature noted that when the high is over the Drake Passage, it alongside an elongated cyclone located in the South Pacific transport warm and moist air to the southwestern Antarctic Peninsula, which is linked to record-high temperatures, extreme summertime melt, and dramatic break-ups in the Larsen Ice Shelf and eastern Antarctic ...