Antarctica warming a regional trend, not local

Washington, November 6 (ANI): In a new research, scientists have determined that the warming observed in the region of Antarctica is a regional trend, not a local one.

In the past 50 years, considerable warming has been observed in the northern Antarctic Peninsula.

Understanding whether these measured changes are a local phenomenon or part of a significant regional trend is important for interpreting observations, validating climate models, and predicting future climate change.

To investigate the extent of the warming, E. R. Thomas from the British Antarctic Survey and his team presented a new 150-year oxygen isotope record from an ice core drilled in the data-sparse southwestern Antarctic Peninsula.

The new record shows about 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in surface temperature since the 1950s.

The record correlates well with satellite-derived temperature reconstructions and records from other locations showing similar warming trends.

The researchers concluded that the warming in the past 50 years has been a regional trend, not a local phenomenon, and has been part of a statistically significant 100-year warming trend that began around 1900.

Furthermore, they used climate models to show that the observed warming trend is outside the expected range of natural variability and is therefore probably the result of human influence. (ANI)