Current activities and items of interest at BAS

(John Turner)

A details study of the surface wind field of Antarctic mesocyclones has been carried out using ERS scatterometer data. The narrow swath width of the instrument limits the number of systems that are viewed by the scatterometer but in a year of data around the Antarctic Peninsula a total of 43 mesocyclones were observed. Most of the systems had a surface circulation, ranging from a slight deviation from geostrophic flow to a closed surface circulation. However, 25% of the systems did not exhibit any surface circulation. The work is now published in JGR (Marshall and Turner, Vol 102, pp 13907-13921). The FROST project (Turner et al., 1996) data collection phase has been completed and there are many activities taking place involving the use of the comprehensive data sets assembled during the project. All available satellite, in-situ and model data were collected for the periods July 1994, 16 October-15 November 1994 and January 1995 allowing the opportunity to carry out details case studies of mesocyclones for these periods. Details of the project and the data collected are available via the FROST www site www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/public/icd/FROST/.

John Turner and John King's book 'Antarctic Meteorology and Climatology' was published by Cambridge University Press in June 1997. It has a mesocyclone on the cover! John Turner is currently the President of the International Commission on Polar Meteorology (ICPM), one of the Commissions of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS). ICPM arranges symposia on polar meteorology at the IAMAS and IUGG meetings that are held every two years and also promotes polar meteorology generally. You can find out more about ICPM via the Commission's www site: www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/public/icd/icpm/. This site provides a lot of links to groups concerned with polar met around the world and also points to on-line data archives. If you know of any useful sites that should be included please contact John Turner (email J.Turner@BAS.AC.UK).