ACES-ACCENT: Antarctic Climate Change and Nonlinear Teleconnections

ACES will investigate the atmospheric and oceanic links that connect the climate of the Antarctic to that of lower latitudes, and their controlling mechanisms. Specific research topics will include the formation and properties of Antarctic clouds, the complexities of the atmospheric boundary layer, and the importance to the global ocean circulation of cold, dense water masses generated in the Antarctic. By quantifying the role of southern polar processes in the global climate system, ACES will help improve predictions of climate change.

Our knowledge of the workings of the climate system is far from complete. We know that atmospheric and oceanic processes in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean influence and are influenced by global climate, but we are unsure of important details. Describing and quantifying the role of the southern polar regions in the global climate system is both important and timely. Delivering the Results ACES will carry out a comprehensive programme of oceanographic measurements from BAS ships in the Weddell and Bellingshausen Seas, and will use BAS's instrument-carrying Twin Otter aircraft to help us study cloud microphysics and air-sea-ice interaction. We will obtain an ice core from the southwestern Antarctic Peninsula to give us a 150-year record of the strength of the circumpolar westerly winds. We will use these observations to test and improve global climate models and a new regional atmosphere-ice-ocean model for the Antarctic. ACES will link with CACHE, GRADES, GEACEP, BIOFLAME, DISCOVERY 2010, and SEC.