Reviews: Antarctic Map Folio Series. Folio 7: Glaciers of the Antarctic; Folio 8: Climatology of the Surface Environment

Summary

This review comments on a climatology atlas of the Antarctic surface, which includes plates on tracks, cloud amount, and blowing snow days. It notes that using March, June, September, and December as representative seasons may be less appropriate than April, July, October, and January due to the lag in atmospheric response to annual solar energy variation. The plates show that anticyclonic East Antarctica is the cold core, while West Antarctica is cyclonically affected. The review questions the accuracy of the blowing snow days plate, suggesting U.S. station data may be overestimated, and notes significant differences in cloud amount distributions between oceanic and polar stations. Overall, the atlas accomplishes a difficult task at a reasonable price, but lacks data details and references, yet remains a convenient reference.