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Updated: Jul 26, 2025

Using Generative Art to Convey Past and Future Climate Transitions
Published on: March 31, 2023
Surface warming from altitudinal and latitudinal amplification over Antarctica since the International Geophysical
Aihong Xie1, Jiangping Zhu2,3, Xiang Qin1
1State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
Abstract:
Warming has been and is being enhanced at high latitudes or high elevations, whereas the quantitative estimation for warming from altitude and latitude effects has not been systematically investigated over Antarctic Ice Sheet, which covers more than 27 degrees of latitude and 4000 m altitude ranges. Based on the monthly surface air temperature data (1958-2020) from ERA5 reanalysis, this work aims to explore whether elevation-dependent warming (EDW) and latitude-dependent warming (LDW) exist. Results show that both EDW and LDW have the cooperative effect on Antarctic warming, and the magnitude of EDW is stronger than LDW. The negative EDW appears between 250 m and 2500 m except winter, and is strongest in autumn. The negative LDW occurs between 83 °S and 90 °S except in summer. Moreover, the surface downward long-wave radiation that related to the specific humidity, total cloud cover and cloud base height is a major contributor to the EDW over Antarctica. Further research on EDW and LDW should be anticipated to explore the future Antarctic amplification under different emission scenarios.
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