AN ANALYSIS OF METEOROLOGICAL DATA IN THE INLAND AREA OF ANTARCTICA

This study is based on data sets in winter in 1983 of ECMWF 500hPa height field and meteorological observations at surface level at Mizuho Station. The indicators of cloudiness and temperature at the surface in the Antarctic interior are those at Vostok station. From the daily data, it is found that the katabatic wind at the Mizuho Station is strong and surface temperature in the inlaid area of Antarctica is high while a strong high pressure system at the 500hPa level appears over East Antarctica. This situation suggests the existence of downward flow in the lower level over the inland area of Antarctica, which is a compensational flow and induces adiabatic heating. The evolution of the high pressure system is partly associated with a variation in the hemispheric-scale circulation system, shown by N. HIRASAWA and T. YAMANOUCHI (Proc. NIPR Symp. Polor Meteorol. Glacciol., 9,193,1995). It is noted that cloudiness in the inland area is larger in during the high pressure than during the low pressure. This situation suggests that when strong katabatic wind induces strong conpensational downward flow, the downward flow is not always predominant from top to bottom of troposphere. However, the mechanism in the relationship between the atmospheric circulation in the lower level and the increase in cloudiness is left to be solved