Dates and 500 hPa geopotential height of P90, P95 and P99 blocking days

These .mat files contain the dates of blocking days over two domains around the Antarctic Peninsula: a domain located to the west (150-90ºW, 50-70ºW) and a domain located over and to the east of the Peninsula (90-30ºW, 50-70ºW). Extreme blocking on each domain occurs when the mean 500 hPa geopotential height, averaged over the domain, is larger than the 90% percentile. Very extreme blocking occurs when the mean 500 hPa geopotential height, averaged over the domain, is larger than the 95% and 99% percentiles.

Variables included within each file:

- date_500mb_p90

- date_500mb_p95

- date_500mb_p99

They represent the dates of extreme and very extreme blocking on each domain

- geo_h500mb_p90

- geo_h500mb_p95

- geo_h500mb_p99

They represent the corresponding 500 hPa mean geopotential height averaged over each domain during extreme (values larger than 90% percentile) and very extreme (values larger than the 95% and 99% percentiles) blocking days.

Also included on each file are variables:

- date_500mb_p90_sor

- date_500mb_p95_sor

- date_500mb_p99_sor

which are just the dates of extreme and very extreme blocking days sorted in ascending order.

For more details on this dataset, see 

J. C. Marín, D. Bozkurt, Barrett, B., 2022: Atmospheric blocking trends and seasonality around the Antarctic Peninsula. Accepted in Journal of Climate.