Antarctic Modeling and Observation System 2 - ATMOS 2

The Brazilian Antarctic Program (PROANTAR) is committed to producing scientific knowledge about the global climate system, involving the connections of the atmosphere, the ocean with emphasis on the Southern Ocean, the cryosphere and the biosphere. This is a State program where the SOOS-endorsed Antarctic Modeling and Observation System 2 (ATMOS 2), which is a second stage of the ATMOS project, is funded and supported. This is still an innovative initiative that is contributing to the integrated understanding of the dynamic and thermodynamic processes associated with the interaction of sea ice-ocean-atmosphere-waves at micro, meso and large scales in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. One of the major concerns of ATMOS 2 is to study and deepen knowledge about the exchanges that occur through turbulent flows of heat, momentum and CO2 at this interface.

The scientific community has addressed multidisciplinary studies of the Earth System, to which this proposal is aligned. Therefore, the ATMOS 2 team is concerned with understanding the relationships between the components of the Antarctic and South American climates, their local processes, their variability, and teleconnections.

The study on a climatic and global scale is carried out through the observation of the operating climate modes (variability) that link Antarctica and the Southern Ocean to Brazil, through teleconnections. On a regional and weather scale, the coupled components of the oceanic and atmospheric systems operating in South America and Antarctica will be studied. On a local scale, campaigns will be carried out to collect in situ data, seeking to understand the local processes that are relevant and possible relationships with larger (temporal and spatial) scales. Always having as a guideline, deepening knowledge about the climate of Antarctica and its influences on the climate of Brazil, following the science advocated in the Decennial Plan for Antarctic Science in Brazil (2023-2032). The air-sea fluxes of heat, momentum and gases in the Southern Ocean have a direct impact, in time scales ranging from short to the climatic ones, on other processes occurring in this ocean and in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is expected, through the development of this project, to articulate and train a multidisciplinary team capable of advancing in the understanding of the modes of oceanic, atmospheric and cryosphere variability, their associated processes, and the possible eventual impacts on the climate of Brazil and South America. A range of techniques will be used, involving in situ data collected in the ocean and atmosphere, coupled Earth System models and reanalysis datasets.

One of the great challenges of ATMOS 2 will be to make use of new in situ observations of air-sea fluxes together with past observations integrated with initiatives such as the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) always keeping in mind to improve and/or develop new parameterizations of these quantities for use in numerical models. This next summer 2024/25 ATMOS 2 will be on its first-year field work. Below are some illustrative figures that show some of the activities carried out in fieldwork led by LOA during ATMOS.