Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Antarctic Temperatures On the Rise

West Antarctica, shown in red, has warmed far more than the east over the last 50 years. image courtesy E. Steig, NASA

Researchers report that average temperatures in the Antarctic are indeed on the rise, matching findings from elsewhere on the globe. The work, reported this week in the journal Nature, looked at 50 years worth of temperature data taken from the frozen continent. From 1957 to 2006, temperatures across Antarctica rose an average of 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit per decade, the scientists found. The researchers found that the western part of Antarctica has warmed the most.

Previous data from Antarctica had not shown the warming trend -- in part due to the lack of detailed weather monitoring there, the researchers say. We'll talk with one of the authors of the paper about its findings.