Meteorology and oceanography of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean - a review of German achievements from the last decade
Creators: name: Hellmer, Hartmut H.
name: Rhein, Monika
name: Heinemann, Günther
name: Abalichin, Janna
name: Abouchami, Wafa
name: Baars, Oliver
name: Cubasch, Ulrich
name: Dethloff, Klaus
name: Ebner, Lars
name: Fahrbach, Eberhard
name: Frank, Martin
name: Gollan, Gereon
name: Greatbatch, Richard J.
name: Grieger, Jens
name: Gryanik, Vladimir M.
name: Gryschka, Micha
name: Hauck, Judith
name: Hoppema, Mario
name: Huhn, Oliver
name: Kanzow, Torsten
name: Koch, Boris P.
name: König-Langlo, Gert
name: Langematz, Ulrike
name: Leckebusch, Gregor C.
name: Lüpkes, Christof
name: Paul, Stephan
name: Rinke, Annette
name: Rost, Bjoern
name: Ruthers Van Der Loeff, Michael
name: Schröder, Michael
name: Seckmeyer, Gunther
name: Stichel, Torben
name: Strass, Volker
name: Timmermann, Ralph
name: Trimborn, Scarlett
name: Ulbrich, Uwe
name: Venchiarutti, Celia
name: Wacker, Ulrike
name: Willmes, Sascha
name: Wolf-Gladrow, Dieter
Publisher: name: Berlin : Springer
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Antarctica
subject: Polar meteorology
subject: Polar oceanography
subject: Southern Ocean
subject: Weddell Sea
subject: Atmospheric boundary layer
subject: Boundary layers
subject: Climate change
subject: Climate models
subject: Ice
subject: Meteorology
subject: Ozone layer
subject: Sea ice
subject: Storms
subject: Trace elements
subject: Weather forecasting
subject: German research foundations
subject: Meridional overturning circulations
subject: Southern ocean
subject: Temporal and spatial scale
subject: Weather forecast models
subject: Oceanography
subject: FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
subject: Dewey Decimal Classification::500 | Naturwissenschaften::550 | Geowissenschaften
subject: Dewey Decimal Classification::500 | Naturwissenschaften::530 | Physik
subject: Dewey Decimal Classification::500 | Naturwissenschaften::551 | Geologie, Hydrologie, Meteorologie

description: In the early 1980s, Germany started a new era of modern Antarctic research. The Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) was founded and important research platforms such as the German permanent station in Antarctica, today called Neumayer III, and the research icebreaker Polarstern were installed. The research primarily focused on the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. In parallel, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) started a priority program ‘Antarctic Research’ (since 2003 called SPP-1158) to foster and intensify the cooperation between scientists from different German universities and the AWI as well as other institutes involved in polar research. Here, we review the main findings in meteorology and oceanography of the last decade, funded by the priority program. The paper presents field observations and modelling efforts, extending from the stratosphere to the deep ocean. The research spans a large range of temporal and spatial scales, including the interaction of both climate components. In particular, radiative processes, the interaction of the changing ozone layer with large-scale atmospheric circulations, and changes in the sea ice cover are discussed. Climate and weather forecast models provide an insight into the water cycle and the climate change signals associated with synoptic cyclones. Investigations of the atmospheric boundary layer focus on the interaction between atmosphere, sea ice and ocean in the vicinity of polynyas and leads. The chapters dedicated to polar oceanography review the interaction between the ocean and ice shelves with regard to the freshwater input and discuss the changes in water mass characteristics, ventilation and formation rates, crucial for the deepest limb of the global, climate-relevant meridional overturning circulation. They also highlight the associated storage of anthropogenic carbon as well as the cycling of carbon, nutrients and trace metals in the ocean with special emphasis on the Weddell Sea.