Antarctica as a Whole is Indeed Warming

Recent discussion that Antarctica was actually cooling and defying overall global warming trend might have to be put on hold...............

Antarctica.

A new study indicates that Antarctica as a whole is warming, and has been doing so for the past 50 years.

"Antarctica is warming, and it's warming at the same rate as the rest of the planet," said study co-author Michael Mann of Penn State University. Mann is also well know for his famous, but controversial "hockey stick", which is a plot of the global temperature anomaly over the past 1000 years.

Comparing weather station and satellite data, the research team developed a statistical technique to make a new estimate of Antarctica temperature trends.

Research does indeed show that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet has been getting colder, which is mainly due to ozone depletion.

The results of their work also showed that in addition to the Antarctic Peninsula warming, the interior of West Antarctica was warming as well.

How did the authors come to the overall conclusion?

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, found that warming in West Antarctica exceeded about 0.18 degree Fahrenheit (0.1 degree Celsius) per decade for the last 50 years -- more than enough to offset the cooling in East Antarctica, according to the LiveScience article.

"Efforts to repair the ozone layer eventually will begin taking effect and the hole could be eliminated by the middle of this century. If that happens, all of Antarctica could begin warming on a par with the rest of the world," said Eric Steig of the University of Washington and lead author of the study.

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The author(s) of the study have already noted some misleading interpretations of their work in the media and blogosphere and respond with a post on RealClimate.org.

thanks to global-warming.accuweather