SciencePoles news

Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.

• A Century of Data Shows Warming on the Islas Orcadas since 1950

  22.01.2010

  More than a century’s worth of weather data from a base at the Islas Orcadas off the tip of Antarctica have revealed a spike in warming there since 1950. The base, which was founded by Scots in 1903, has been collecting daily weather data for over a century, giving scientists with a better understanding of climate change in the southern hemisphere.

• Antarctic Warming Up Overall According to New Study

  13.01.2010

  So far, Antarctica seems to be resisting the global warming trend. However studies that reached this conclusion relied mostly upon data collected at various coastal weather stations and none from the interior of the continent, giving an incomplete picture. However by using an innovative technique, American scientists were able to construct 50-year estimates of the near-surface temperature anomalies for the entire continent, showing an overall warming trend across Antarctica.

• SCAR’s Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment Released

  02.12.2009

  Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment, the first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate and its relationship to the global climate system, has just been published by theScientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).

• Ozone Hole over Antarctica Slowly Recovering

  18.11.2009

  In September 2009, the size of the ozone hole over the Earth’ssouthernmost continent reached its springtime peak. It was measured to bethe 10th largest on record, according to researchers from the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

• Study Results Force New Australian Antarctic Division UV Exposure Policy

  17.11.2009

  The results of a new collaborative study by the Australian Antarctic Division and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency show that many who go on Antarctic expeditions receive more than the recommended limit of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure. According to the study, the extended duration of sunlight in Polar Regions along with the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica and the reflective nature of the ice and water are responsible for the high levels of UVR exposure.

• Scientists Put Recent Antarctic Minimum Snowmelt into Context

  28.10.2009

  A recent study by Drs. Andrew Monaghan and Marco Tedesco published in October 2009 in Geophysical Research Letters documented minimum snowmelt n Antarctica during the 2008-09 austral summer and a lower than normal snowmelt during several recent years. The results, which are based on records from the satellite era going back 30 years, were incorrectly interpreted by numerous blogs, which prompted the two scientists to debunk on RealClimate.org the myths circulating in the blogosphere.

• Climate Change May Alter UV Levels around the Globe

  08.09.2009

  While the use of ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) was phasedout under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, man-made climate change has the potential togreatly affect the ozone layer as well, not through ozone depletion but by influencing the movement of high-altitude winds, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto and published in Nature Geoscience.

• The Paradox of Antarctic Sea Ice

  02.09.2009

  Even as average global temperature increases, the waters around most of Antarctica are gaining sea ice. While Arctic sea ice has been retreating at a rate of about 4% per decade since the 1970s, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has been expanding northward by about 1% (about 100,000 km2) per decade over the same period.

• Scientists Underestimate Role of Ozone Hole in the Carbon Cycle

  02.07.2009

  A pluridisciplinary collaborative team of scientists has come together to develop a more accurate climate model that takes into account and assesses the Southern Ocean’s ability to act as a carbon sink. This is the first time that the impact of the ozone hole on the oceanic carbon cycle has been simulated in a global climate model.

• Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Increases due to Ozone Hole

  21.04.2009

  New research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters reports that the increased extent of Antarctic sea ice is a result of the ozone hole delaying the impacts of worldwide greenhouse gas increases.

• Antarctica Warmed More than Previously Thought in Last 50 Years

  23.01.2009

  Until recently scientists studying climate change believed that the East Antarctic Ice Sheet was not getting significantly warmer like the rest of the planet and actually getting colder, and that the Antarctic Peninsula was the only part of the continent getting significantly warmer. However a recent study by Eric Steig, Professor of Earth and Space Sciences and Director of the Quaternary Research Center at the University of Washington showed that much of Antarctica has been warming at a rate comparable to the rest of the planet.

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