pdf SCAR XXX WP15: Report on Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS)

SCAR XXX WP15: Report on Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS)

The Rationale for the Programme

AGCS is a cross-disciplinary science programme that focuses on the atmospheric, oceanic and cryospheric linkages between the Antarctic and the rest of the Earth system. It uses a very wide range of observations from the Antarctic continent and the Southern Ocean to investigate natural climate variability and possible anthropogenic signatures of change. The in-situ meteorological and oceanic observations provide high quality data for recent decades, but these are supplements with proxy data from deep and shallow ice cores that extend the records back into the pre-instrumental period. The programme also uses a range of satellite data and the output of climate and numerical weather prediction models to investigate the mechanisms of change and how climate signals are transferred to and from mid-latitudes and the tropics to the Antarctic. Our focus is on climate change over roughly the last 10,000 years, although we work closely with the ACE programme, which is looking deeper into the past.

AGCS consists of four science themes concerned with:

1. Decadal time scale variability in the Antarctic climate system
2. Global and regional climate signals in ice cores
3. Natural and anthropogenic forcing on the Antarctic climate system
4. The export of Antarctic climate signals.

This document reports on progress with the implementation of the programme since our report to the SCAR Executive in July 2007. It provides details of progress with the science and lists outputs.