The problem of the katabatic winds on the coast of Terre Adélie

Abstract

The cause of the phenomenally high winds recorded by Sir Douglas Mawson's party at Cape Denison during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911–14 (Mawson, 1939), and by the French expedition to Port Martin in 1950–51 (Boujon, 1954) has never been satisfactorily explained. As indicated in the Table, the annual mean wind recorded at those stations, 71·1 and 64·6 km per h respectively, is about 70 per cent greater than recorded elsewhere around the coast at stations fully exposed to katabatic flow, notably Mirny and Mawson. Admittedly, the total number of coastal stations is small, considering the length of the Antarctic coastline, and one cannot exclude the possibility that similar very strong winds prevail in other places. Nevertheless, the figures for Cape Denison and Port Martin are notable, if not unique, and the question arises why this should occur on the coast of Terre Adélie.