Summary
Ice cores from Law Dome, in coastal East Antarctica, provide climate records that have strong connections to the Southern Ocean and mid-latitude climate in the Australian region. The overall climate history available from Law Dome extends back for tens of millennia, with seasonally-resolved records currently reaching back 700– 800 years. These records offer an opportunity to probe the past climate variability on the longer-term and to evaluate the degree to which present climate events are unusual. Here we examine the record of snow accumulation in conjunction with chemical markers that allow separation into nominal winter and summer seasons. Tas van Ommen Australian Antarctic Division/Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC tas.van.ommen@utas.edu.au Vin Morgan Australian Antarctic Division/Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC Mark Curran Australian Antarctic Division/Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC We find that the annual snowfall is strongly correlated with sea-level pressure at mid-latitudes in the Australian and New Zealand sector. Comparison with meteorological data suggests the associated circulation connects with precipitation in south-west Western Australia; and indeed the Law Dome snowfall is anticorrelated with multi-year trends in winter rainfall in this region over the last century. This connection is examined further using the winter/ summer seasonal variations in Law Dome snowfall.