This is the 33rd issuance of the annual assessment now known as State of the Climate, published in the Bulletin since 1996. As a supplement to the Bulletin, its foremost function is to document the status and trajectory of many components of the climate system. However, as a series, the …
It looks as if picky eaters may be going hungry if climate change continues. Scientists have found two species responding very differently to a changing world, and their main difference happens to lie in what they eat. In this case, the two species are the Chinstrap penguins and the Gentoo …
Global sea-level has been rising about 2.5 times faster during the past 20 years than it has for the preceding eight decades of the 20th century, according to a newly published study in the journal Nature. Researchers at Rutgers and Harvard universities found that between 1901 and 1990 sea-level rose …
Scientists overestimated the rate of sea level rise between 1901 and 1990, meaning Earth’s oceans have expanded more dramatically in the past 25 years and major coastal cities and island communities could be closer to going under than previous research has shown. That’s the crux of a new study from …
Well-established satellite-derived Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents are combined to create the global picture of sea ice extents and their changes over the 35-yr period 1979–2013. Results yield a global annual sea ice cycle more in line with the high-amplitude Antarctic annual cycle than the lower-amplitude Arctic annual cycle …
We analyzed volume change and mass balance of outlet glaciers of the northern Antarctic Peninsula over the period 2011 to 2013, using topographic data of high vertical accuracy and great spatial detail, acquired by bistatic radar interferometry of the TanDEM-X/TerraSAR-X satellite formation. The study area includes glaciers draining into the …
Global climate and the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) are correlated over recent glacial cycles. The combination of processes responsible for a rise in atmospheric CO2 at the last glacial termination1, 3 (23,000 to 9,000 years ago), however, remains uncertain. Establishing the timing and rate of CO2 changes in …
The fledging mass of penguin chicks can be an indicator of food availability and environmental conditions at a penguin colony. For the period 1989 to 2011, we analyzed predictor variables of environmental and food resource factors acting on multiple spatial scales near Palmer Station, Antarctica, that may influence the interannual …
Meeting of 25 nations, including Russia and Ukraine, in Hobart will consider proposals on the future of Antarctic research and marine protection. Tense international relations could sway the outcome of vital research and protection proposals for the Antarctic, the head of a global meeting of scientists says. Russia and China …
Penguin personalities may create for some diverse populations, but they also help these Antarctic birds cope with the effects of climate change, according to new research. According to the Audubon Society, nearly half of all North American bird species are severely threatened by shifts in climate. As native habitats shrink …
NEW YORK: Sea ice around Antarctica has reached its highest level since measurement started in 1979, NASA said. The upward trend in the Antarctic, however, is only about a third of the magnitude of the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. The new Antarctic sea ice record …
The extent of sea ice in Antarctica is set to reach a record high, scientists said on Tuesday, as they announced that Arctic sea ice appeared to have shrunk to its sixth lowest level ever. The NSIDC said that satellite data was expected to shortly confirm whether the maximum extent …
Last month was the hottest August on record globally, adding to a run of months with exceptionally warm conditions. According to US space agency NASA, worldwide land and sea-surface temperatures were 0.7 degrees above the 1951-80 baseline average - edging ahead of the previous high set in 2011 - as …
The northern Antarctic Peninsula is currently undergoing rapid atmospheric warming. Increased glacier-surface melt during the twentieth century has contributed to ice-shelf collapse and the widespread acceleration, thinning and recession of glaciers. Therefore, glaciers peripheral to the Antarctic Ice Sheet currently make a large contribution to eustatic sea-level rise, but future …
Melting ice is fuelling sea-level rise around the coast of Antarctica, a new report in Nature Geoscience finds. Near-shore waters went up by about 2mm per year more than the general trend for the Southern Ocean as a whole in the period between 1992 and 2011. Scientists say the melting …
German researchers have established the height of the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps with greater precision than ever before. The new maps they have produced show that the ice is melting at an unprecedented rate. The maps, produced with a satellite-mounted instrument, have elevation accuracies to within a few metres. …
Runaway growth in the emission of greenhouse gases is swamping all political efforts to deal with the problem, raising the risk of 'severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts' over the coming decades, according to a draft of a major new UN report. Global warming is already cutting grain production by several …
Our atmosphere "contains an unexpectedly large amount of an ozone-depleting compound from an unknown source, decades after the compound was banned worldwide," reports a NASA study out this week. Before its use was supposedly banned in 1987 by an international treaty, the compound, carbon tetrachloride (CCI4), was produced in large …
Greenland and Antarctica are home to the two largest ice sheets in the world, and a new report released Wednesday says that they are contributing to sea level rise twice as much as they were just five years ago. Using the European Space Agency's CryoSat 2 satellite, the Alfred Wegener …
Liquid water has been known to occur beneath the Antarctic ice sheet for more than 40 years, but only recently have these subglacial aqueous environments been recognized as microbial ecosystems that may influence biogeochemical transformations on a global scale. Here we present the first geomicrobiological description of water and surficial …
