Precipitation regime of Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, derived from Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) archive data

The mass balance map and the AMPS mean annual precipitation field show fairly similar patterns, which are mostly related to topography and prevailing wind systems. Precipitation is found to generally decrease from the coast to the inland plateau. Along the escarpment between the low-altitude coastal areas and the interior plateau, local minima and maxima in precipitation correspond to the leeward and windward sides of topographical ridges.

Interannual variability of monthly sums of precipitation is fairly high owing to the influence of cyclone activity on precipitation, which affects not only the coastal regions, but also the interior of the continent more than previously thought.