Antarctica Warms Significantly,According to Comprehensive New Study

Contrary to earlier studies showing that Antarctica was bucking the global warming trend and cooling slightly, a major new study has found that most of the continent — and particularly its western half —Nature. has warmed substantially over the last 50 years. Scientists from NASA, the University of Washington, and other agencies used infrared temperature measurements from satellites and data from ground stations to determine that the continent overall warmed by .6 C (1 F) from 1957 to 2006 ”“ about the same as the southern hemisphere as a whole. In west Antarctica, where eight marine ice shelves have collapsed in recent decades and massive ice sheets are showing signs of instability, temperatures have risen by .85 C (1.5 F) in the past 50 years, according to the study, published in Temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula have risen several times as fast as west Antarctica as a whole. The new study says that some parts of east Antarctica have actually cooled slightly due to changes in wind circulation that are driving more cold polar air over those regions. The recent study underscores concerns among scientists about the warming of the west Antarctic ice sheet, which, if it were to melt in its entirety, could raise global sea levels by 16 to 20 feet.