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New ice core shows
more evidence of Antarctic Peninsula change
Dr
Liz Thomas conducts initial analysis of the Gomez ice core
Issue
date: 31 Jan 2008-More evidence of changing weather patterns around the
Antarctic Peninsula a region where climate has changed rapidly over the last
50 years is published this month in Geophysical Research Letters (online).
Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the Desert Research
Institute, USA, report a doubling of snowfall in the western Antarctic Peninsula
since the 1850s, with a particularly rapid increase each decade since the 1970s.
Although the findings are consistent with predictions of increased snowfall as
the Antarctic Peninsula gets warmer, the magnitude of the change is surprising.
Records of snowfall across the rest of Antarctica appear to have changed very
little during this time.
Scientists have used various instruments and technologies to make direct
observations and measurements of climate since the first permanent Antarctic
research stations were established over 50 years ago.
Gomez
Ice Core field camp - Scientists extract an ice core
Lead author, Liz Thomas of BAS said, To understand our changing climate we
need go back in time. This is where ice cores come in. Our climate models
suggested that a location known as Gomez* would be a good place to extract an
ice core to find out about the impact of changing weather patterns on snowfall.
Evidence from the core is consistent with our direct observations of temperature
over the last 50 or so years.
The marked and increasingly rapid rise in snow accumulation on the western
Antarctic Peninsula is yet more evidence of dramatic climate change in the
region. The rapidity is significant because it shows that large scale changes in
weather patterns can happen very quickly even within our lifetime and if
these shifts in snowfall can happen in the Antarctic Peninsula, they could
happen elsewhere.
This new finding contributes to an ongoing series of investigations on the West
Antarctic Ice Sheet that aims to improve our forecasts of future climate change.
Ends
Issued by British Antarctic Survey Press Office.
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