IPY finds Antarctica warming fast and widespread
February 25th, 2009 by Jim JustThe International Polar Year (IPY) survey has found that warming in the Antarctic is much more widespread than was thought. When the survey began in 2007, Greenland and Antarctica’s land areas were viewed as largely stable despite some worrying signs of fringe melting.
Scientists found that the ocean around the Antarctic has warmed more rapidly than the global average. Shifts in temperature patterns deep underwater are causing the continent’s land ice sheet to melt faster than previously known.
Both the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass and thus raising sea levels, and the rate of ice loss from Greenland is growing. Arctic sea ice has decreased to its lowest level since satellite records began.
Rising sea levels and changes in ocean temperatures triggered by the melting ice are expected to cause shifts in weather patterns worldwide and more damaging coastal storm surges.
IPY director David Carlson said:
“We’re beginning to get hints of change in ocean circulation, that’ll have a dramatic impact on the global climate system.”