Towards an Atmospheric Energy Budget for the Antarctic

We discuss ongoing work to construct an atmospheric energy budget for the Southern Hemisphere polar region based on observations from the post-1979 period. Satellite measurements, in situ data, and atmospheric reanalyses are synthesized in order to describe the long-term means and variability of radiative, latent and sensible heating, as well as the atmospheric transport of moist static energy into the polar region. Decadal trends in energy budget components linked to stratospheric ozone depletion and increases in well-mixed greenhouse gases are identified, as are shorter term interannual variations associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Southern Annular Mode.