A new index used to characterise the extent of Antarctic marine coastal winds in climate projections

Cable, Archie; Caton Harrison, Thomas; Kent, Elizabeth; Cornes, Richard; Bracegirdle, Thomas J.

doi:10.5194/wcd-7-247-2026

Articles | Volume 7, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-247-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-247-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 1

Research article

|

30 Jan 2026

Research article |

| 30 Jan 2026

A new index used to characterise the extent of Antarctic marine coastal winds in climate projections

Archie Cable, Thomas Caton Harrison, Elizabeth Kent, Richard Cornes, and Thomas J. Bracegirdle

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-7-247-2026-supplement

Data sets

ERA5~monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1940 to present Hans Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.6860a573

Japanese Reanalysis for Three Quarters of a Century (JRA-3Q) JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency/Japan) https://doi.org/10.5065/D6HH6H41

JRA-55: Japanese 55-year Reanalysis, Daily 3-Hourly and 6-Hourly Data JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency/Japan) https://doi.org/10.5065/AVTZ-1H78

Short summary

Winds around the Antarctic coast have global importance. With influences from competing drivers, their structure is complex so it is hard to understand how they will change in the future. We develop a simple measure that identifies key features in the coastal winds, including their northern extent. Using climate models, we analyse future projections of this boundary and find that it will shift polewards, shrinking the Antarctic coastal wind region.