Scientists reporting of Warming faster in Antarctica
Scientists reporting of Warming faster in Antarctica
West Antarctica is much more than scientists had thought in the past half century warming, new research suggests an ominous finding as much ice can be vulnerable to the long-term collapse, with potentially far-reaching implications for sea level.
"The surprises keep coming," said Andrew J. Monaghan, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, who participated in the study. "If you have this kind of warming to see, I think it's alarming."
Of course, warming in Antarctica a relative term. West Antarctica is still a very cold place, with an average annual temperature in the middle of the ice sheet that almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
But the temperature did not rise above freezing even in summer, and the new research raises the possibility that it may start to happen more often, possibly weakening the ice sheet by surface melting. The ice cap is already under fire at the edges of warmer sea water, and scientists are wary of any new threat.
A paper published Sunday by the journal Nature Geoscience reports that the temperature at a research station in the middle of West Antarctica has warmed by 4.4 degrees Celsius since 1958. It is about twice as much as scientists thought, and three times the total global warming, making the center of West Antarctica is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth.
A nearby area called the Antarctic Peninsula, which extends north from West Antarctica and reasonably good data are available, was already known to be quick off the ground. A 2009 paper found significant warming in most of West Antarctica, but these results were challenged by a group that included climate contrarians.
To try to get to the bottom of the demand, David H. Bromwich from Ohio State University, a team that focused on a temperature record. On a lonely outpost called Byrd Station, in the heart of West Antarctica, humans and automatic systems keep the temperature and other weather variables since the late 1950s.
It is by far the longest weather record in this region, but it had intermittent gaps and other problems, there were many scientists wary of. The Bromwich group decided to try to save Byrd plate.
A large proportion of the heating detected in the new paper was made in the 1980s, at about the same time the planet started to heat warm. Recently, Dr. Bromwich said the weather in West Antarctica appears to have been a little erratic. In the summer of 2005, warmed the interior of West Antarctica up enough ice for a few days of the surface undergoes melting.
Dr. Bromwich are afraid that this could eventually be routine, may accelerate the degradation of the West Antarctic ice sheet, but the heating is not fast enough for that to happen immediately. "We're talking decades in the future, I think," said Dr. Bromwich.
West Antarctica is much more than scientists had thought in the past half century warming, new research suggests an ominous finding as much ice can be vulnerable to the long-term collapse, with potentially far-reaching implications for sea level.
"The surprises keep coming," said Andrew J. Monaghan, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, who participated in the study. "If you have this kind of warming to see, I think it's alarming."
Of course, warming in Antarctica a relative term. West Antarctica is still a very cold place, with an average annual temperature in the middle of the ice sheet that almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
But the temperature did not rise above freezing even in summer, and the new research raises the possibility that it may start to happen more often, possibly weakening the ice sheet by surface melting. The ice cap is already under fire at the edges of warmer sea water, and scientists are wary of any new threat.
A paper published Sunday by the journal Nature Geoscience reports that the temperature at a research station in the middle of West Antarctica has warmed by 4.4 degrees Celsius since 1958. It is about twice as much as scientists thought, and three times the total global warming, making the center of West Antarctica is one of the fastest warming regions on Earth.
A nearby area called the Antarctic Peninsula, which extends north from West Antarctica and reasonably good data are available, was already known to be quick off the ground. A 2009 paper found significant warming in most of West Antarctica, but these results were challenged by a group that included climate contrarians.
To try to get to the bottom of the demand, David H. Bromwich from Ohio State University, a team that focused on a temperature record. On a lonely outpost called Byrd Station, in the heart of West Antarctica, humans and automatic systems keep the temperature and other weather variables since the late 1950s.
It is by far the longest weather record in this region, but it had intermittent gaps and other problems, there were many scientists wary of. The Bromwich group decided to try to save Byrd plate.
A large proportion of the heating detected in the new paper was made in the 1980s, at about the same time the planet started to heat warm. Recently, Dr. Bromwich said the weather in West Antarctica appears to have been a little erratic. In the summer of 2005, warmed the interior of West Antarctica up enough ice for a few days of the surface undergoes melting.
Dr. Bromwich are afraid that this could eventually be routine, may accelerate the degradation of the West Antarctic ice sheet, but the heating is not fast enough for that to happen immediately. "We're talking decades in the future, I think," said Dr. Bromwich.
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