Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic ‘cooling’

Article in The Guardian of 21st January 2009 (news also covered in New Scientist) about why the Antarctic appeared to be cooling slightly, while the West Antarctic  has been getting warmer and the Ice Sheet (WAIS) has been shown increasing glacier movement and ice-melt, and the earth as a whole has been getting warmer. A new study published in Nature finds the continent has been getting warmer and explains the slight cooling in East Antarctica.  The warming of WAIS  has offset the cooling of the Eastern Antarctic and continent’s mean surface temperature has risen slightly (0.12C per decade since 1957).  The cooling of East Antarctica is likely to reverse soon.

It seems that the cooling of East Antarctica was due to the ozone hole, and now that the release of ozone harming chemicals has been reduced the ozone hole is healing itself and the temperature of East Antartical is likely to warm and catch-up that of  West Antarctica quite rapidly.

The new study uses ground measurements and satellite data and was led by Professor Eric Steig, at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Here’s the demolition of yet another climate change denier’s argument (picking on an anomaly).

And – more concern about sea-levels, amongst other impacts: “The rapid warming now revealed in the west concerns some scientists. The new analysis suggests the West Antarctic ice sheet, like that in Greenland, is precariously balanced, said Professor Barry Brook at the University of Adelaide. “Even losing a fraction of both would cause a few metres of sea level rise this century, with disastrous consequences,” he said.” (from the Guardian Article)