Reply #1: Just a reminder: Satellites Confirm Half-Century of West Antarctic Warming

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20090121/

Satellites Confirm Half-Century of West Antarctic Warming

Jan. 21, 2009

The Antarctic Peninsula juts into the Southern Ocean, reaching farther north than any other part of the continent. The southernmost reach of global warming was believed to be limited to this narrow strip of land, while the rest of the continent was presumed to be cooling or stable.

Not so, according to a new analysis involving NASA data. In fact, the study has confirmed a trend suspected by some climate scientists.

"Everyone knows it has been warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, where there are lots of weather stations collecting data," said Eric Steig, a climate researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle, and lead author of the study. "Our analysis told us that it is also warming in West Antarctica."

The finding is the result of a novel combination of historical temperature data from ground-based weather stations and more recent data from satellites. Steig and colleagues used data from each record to fill in gaps in the other and to reconstruct a 50-year history of surface temperatures across Antarctica.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/MN8015E0U9.DTL

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But East Antarctica has been a very different story. Here, many scientists have contended that the huge region has been cooling over the past half-century.

A leading scientist who has long collected data supporting that cooling argument conceded, in an e-mail to The Chronicle on Wednesday, that the evidence in the new report "lends confidence" that the new findings on Antarctic temperature trends "are robust."

Andrew Monaghan of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., also was impressed by the new findings and said he's convinced that greenhouse gases - known as "anthropogenic" influences - have played a role in warming Antarctica's climate.

"My opinion is that anthropogenic impacts - through both greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone - are having a discernible impact on Antarctic climate variability and will continue to do so," Monaghan said.

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