Antarctic Air is Warming Faster Than Rest of World






by Mark Henderson, Times/UK, Posted on Commondreams.org


AIR temperatures above the entire frozen continent of Antarctica have risen three times faster than the rest of the world during the past 30 years.


While it is well established that temperatures are increasing rapidly in the Antarctic Peninsula, the land tongue that protrudes towards South America, the trend has been harder to confirm over the continent as a whole.

Now analysis of weather balloon data by scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has shown that not only are the lower reaches of the Antarctic atmosphere warming, but that they are doing so at the fastest rate observed anywhere on Earth.

Temperatures in the troposphere — the lowest 8km (5 miles) of the atmosphere — have increased by between 0.5C and 0.7 C (0.9F and 1.3F) per decade over the past 30 years.

This signature of climate change is three times stronger than the average observed around the world, suggesting that global warming is having an uneven impact and that it could be greater for Antarctica.



Click to Read

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why the era of cheap food is over

Climate Confusion: Who Wins?

US headed for a massive decline in carbon emissions