Ice sheets of West Antarctica are warming fast

THE ice sheets of West Antarctica are warming much faster than we thought, suggesting swathes of it could melt and send global sea levels soaring.

Climatologists have struggled to work out whether Antarctica is warming, and how quickly, because it has few weather stations and the records from some are incomplete.

David Bromwich of Ohio State University in Columbus and his colleagues filled in the gaps for one key station using statistics and data from a climate model. They conclude that temperatures since 1958 have risen about 0.46 ?C per decade - more than twice as fast as previously thought (Nature Geoscience, doi.org/j351).

But Michael Mann at Penn State University in University Park says that warmer ocean water flooding in underneath the sheet poses a greater threat.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

Have your say

Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in.

Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article

Subscribe now to comment.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/272095d1/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg217289840B70A0A0Eice0Esheets0Eof0Ewest0Eantarctica0Eare0Ewarming0Efast0Bhtml0Dcmpid0FRSS0QNSNS0Q20A120EGLOBAL0Qonline0Enews/story01.htm

hangout todd haley kareem abdul jabbar miramonte elementary school mark jenkins super bowl commercials 2012 mia