From Ice to Space

The atmosphere over Antarctica is pristine, dry and isolated. This is because it is very far from all sources of manmade emissions, is extremely cold and completely surrounded by the enormous Southern Ocean. It is, however, home to unusual chemical and physical processes that have a global significance. In this chapter, we start by considering some fundamental concepts used to describe the Earth’s atmosphere. We then focus on measurements of past and present carbon dioxide concentrations from Antarctica, the stratospheric ozone hole, and atmospheric chemistry occurring near ground level. Finally, we consider some connections between these apparently distinct phenomena in order to illustrate the critical role the Antarctic atmosphere plays in connecting global land, ice and oceans, as well as different geographical areas of the Earth.