Climatic Trends in the Southern Hemisphere

Abstract

Observations of monthly mean sea level pressure, surface air temperature, and 500 mb and 300 mb geopotential heights and temperatures are used to study trends in the Southern Hemisphere from 1951?81. The winter mean sea level pressure fell over the Indian/Atlantic half of the hemisphere from the 1950s to the 1960s, and rose over the other half. Generally, these trends reversed from the 1960s to the 1970s. The trends are equivalent barotropic. The trends of temperatures are often regionally dependent. There was a significant warming over Antarctica from the 1960s to 1970s at all upper levels except for a small area on the Indian Ocean side.