Analysis of Surface Weather Parameters and Energy Fluxes Over the Indian Antarctic Stations: Maitri and Bharati

In the present study, analysis of surface weather parameters and energy fluxes has been carried out over the Indian Antarctic stations Maitri and Bharati. For this purpose, weather parameters taken from three different reanalysis datasets are compared against automatic weather station (AWS) observations during the period from 1991 to 2010. Results suggest that the European centre for medium-range weather forecasts Reanalysis-Interim (ERAI) yields better estimates and further used for long-term analysis over the period from 1979 to 2017. It is found that air temperature at Maitri is always lower than that at Bharati. This difference might be due to the Maitri being located at 100 km inland in comparison with Bharati which is near the coast. The wind direction analysis indicates the predominance of South-East and North-East winds at Maitri and Bharati, respectively. Moreover, monthly net energy fluxes climatology has been prepared using ERAI reanalysis. During January (-14 W/m(2)) and December (-9 W/m(2)) net energy fluxes at Maitri are negative (energy flow from surface to atmosphere), whereas at Bharati, during January (7.68 W/m(2)) and December (15.34 W/m(2)) net energy fluxes are positive. Net energy flux at Maitri is strongly and negatively influenced by snow layer temperature whereas at Bharati, snow layer temperature influences net energy flux during winter.