ACE Antarctic Expedition: 10-Day Atmospheric Backward Trajectories

The Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) dataset contains 10-day backward atmospheric trajectories calculated using the LAGRANTO tool and ECMWF operational analysis data. Trajectories originate from up to 56 vertical levels between 0 and 500 hPa along the ship's track from November 2016 to April 2017. The dataset includes trajectory files with interpolated meteorological variables and supporting map and cross-section visualizations.

Use Cases

• Analyzing air mass origins and transport pathways to the Antarctic based on 10-day backward trajectories.
• Studying vertical atmospheric structure and humidity distribution from cross-section plots colored by specific humidity.
• Investigating Lagrangian flow dynamics using wind fields from ECMWF operational analysis.
• Validating atmospheric models with trajectory data calculated from up to 56 vertical pressure levels.

Strengths

• Trajectories are calculated from high-resolution 3D wind fields from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) operational analysis.
• Dataset provides a detailed vertical profile with trajectories started from up to 56 levels between 0 and 500 hPa.
• Includes complementary map and cross-section visualizations for spatial and vertical analysis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as exact row count, file size, and specific column names are not provided in the available sources.
• The temporal coverage is limited to a single austral summer season (Nov 2016–Apr 2017).
• Documentation gaps exist; the 'data_file_header.txt' is referenced but its specific contents are not detailed.

Provenance

Source

Calculated by Iris Thurnherr (ETH Zurich) using ECMWF analysis data and the LAGRANTO tool.

Collection Method

Lagrangian analysis of 3D-wind fields to compute 10-day backward trajectories along a ship track.

Time Range

November 2016 to April 2017

Geography

Ship track of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition in the Southern Ocean/Antarctic region.