Publication Date:
2009-01-23
Description:
Assessments of Antarctic temperature change have emphasized the contrast between strong warming of the Antarctic Peninsula and slight cooling of the Antarctic continental interior in recent decades. This pattern of temperature change has been attributed to the increased strength of the circumpolar westerlies, largely in response to changes in stratospheric ozone. This picture, however, is substantially incomplete owing to the sparseness and short duration of the observations. Here we show that significant warming extends well beyond the Antarctic Peninsula to cover most of West Antarctica, an area of warming much larger than previously reported. West Antarctic warming exceeds 0.1 degrees C per decade over the past 50 years, and is strongest in winter and spring. Although this is partly offset by autumn cooling in East Antarctica, the continent-wide average near-surface temperature trend is positive. Simulations using a general circulation model reproduce the essential features of the spatial pattern and the long-term trend, and we suggest that neither can be attributed directly to increases in the strength of the westerlies. Instead, regional changes in atmospheric circulation and associated changes in sea surface temperature and sea ice are required to explain the enhanced warming in West Antarctica.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Steig, Eric J -- Schneider, David P -- Rutherford, Scott D -- Mann, Michael E -- Comiso, Josefino C -- Shindell, Drew T -- England -- Nature. 2009 Jan 22;457(7228):459-62. doi: 10.1038/nature07669.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Earth and Space Sciences and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. steig@ess.washington.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19158794" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Algorithms
;
Antarctic Regions
;
Calibration
;
*Greenhouse Effect
;
Ice Cover/*chemistry
;
*Temperature
;
Time Factors
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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