Antarctic snowfall consists of frequent clear‐sky precipitation and heavier falls from intrusions of maritime airmasses associated with amplified planetary waves. We investigate the importance of different precipitation events using the output of the RACMO2 model. Extreme precipitation events consisting of the largest 10% of daily totals are shown to contribute more than 40% of the total annual precipitation across much of the continent, with some areas receiving in excess of 60% of the total from these events. The greatest contribution of extreme precipitation events to the annual total is in the coastal areas and especially on the ice shelves, with the Amery Ice Shelf receiving 50% of its annual precipitation in less than the 10 days of heaviest precipitation. For the continent as a whole, 70% of the variance of the annual precipitation is explained by variability in precipitation from extreme precipitation events, with this figure rising to over 90% in some areas.

Iron is a limiting micronutrient for primary production in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Recent observations reveal low dissolved Fe (dFe) concentrations in the Ross Sea polynya following high initial rates of primary production in summer, after the dFe winter reserve has been consumed. Significant new sources of dFe are therefore required to further sustain phytoplankton blooms. Iron from aeolian sand and dust (ASD) released from melting sea ice is one potential source. To constrain aeolian Fe inputs, we determined ASD mass accumulation rates and the total and soluble Fe content of ASD on sea ice in McMurdo Sound, southwestern (SW) Ross Sea. The mean mass accumulation rate was~1.5 g m À2 yr À1, total Fe content of this ASD was 4 ± 1 wt %, and the percentage of soluble Fe was 11 ± 1%. Our mean estimate of the bulk aeolian dFe flux of 122.1 μmol m À2 yr À1 for the McMurdo Sound region suggests that aeolian Fe can support between 9.0 × 10 9 and 4.1 × 10 11 mol C yr À1 (0.1-4.9 Tg C yr À1) of new primary production. This equates to only~15% of new primary production in the SW Ross Sea, suggesting that aeolian dFe is a minor component of seasonal Fe supply. The very high ASD accumulation on sea ice in McMurdo Sound compared to other regions of Antarctica suggests that our results represent the upper limit of dFe supply to the ocean from this source in the Ross Sea.