This grant continues support for the study of the windfield near Terra Nova Bay and the effects of these strong winds on cyclogenesis in the Ross Sea. The work is performed by a collaboration of T. Parish at the University of Wyoming and D. Bromwich at Ohio State University. Cold air runs down the several converging gaps in the mountains that form the coastline near Terra Nova Bay. The resulting katabatic winds are among the strongest and most persistent winds in the world. The proposers have collected data for the past several years from a variety of sources, including instrumented aircraft measurements, automatic weather stations, airborne photography of snow formations and satellite imagery. This work will continue the analysis of existing data and the continued collection of additional data from satellites and the automatic weather stations. Models will be developed to attempt to account for the observed winds. Some of the automatic weather station data are collected in conjunction with the Italian Antarctic research base at Terra Nova Bay. This grant also provides for the support of two undergraduate students under the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program.
