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 …
Scientists measure ice rise dynamics over 4 weeks, say it can throw light on how ice flows into ocean It is a piece of a larger puzzle that begins with an ice rise in East Antarctica. Vikram Goel, 28, says he is not answering any big questions yet but is …
Melting polar ice due to global warming poses an existential threat to humanity. New research on the melting of Antarctic ice sheets has suggested a dramatically faster pace of melting than is currently believed to be occurring — projections which, if they play out at the median level, could submerge …
A geothermal heat source called mantle plume lies deep below Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land, explaining some of the melting that creates lakes and rivers under the ice sheet, a NASA study has found. Although the heat source is not a new or increasing threat to the West Antarctic ice sheet, …
Coastal cities around the world could be devastated by 1.3m of sea level rise this century unless coal-generated electricity is virtually eliminated by 2050, according to a new paper that combines the latest understanding of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level rise and the latest emissions projection scenarios. It confirms again …
Global warming could have unprecedented consequences for one of the most unknown regions of the planet – the seabed of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. A rise of just 1°C could almost double the growth of life on the seabed. A rise of 2°C could change the pattern of seafloor …
Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas and plays a key part in global atmospheric chemistry. Natural geological emissions (fossil methane vented naturally from marine and terrestrial seeps and mud volcanoes) are thought to contribute around 52 teragrams of methane per year to the global methane source, about 10 per …
Study validates East Antarctic ice sheet to remain stable even if western ice sheet melts Team members taking a short ice core to study properties of sediment coming from the East Antarctic ice sheet. Credit: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory A new study from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis validates that the central …
A vortex of air during the summer does the trick, but there are downsides, too The massive crack in a glacier in Greenland, the unearthing of a mummified couple in Switzerland from a receding glacier, a trillion tonne iceberg breaking off Antarctica — all these events have left scientists and …
This colourful video tracks the behaviour of the ozone layer over Antarctica across all of 2016. It shows clearly the annual “hole” that appears above the South Pole in the austral springtime, and which last year grew to about 23 million sq km (9 million sq miles) in extent. The …
A new study by scientists at Portland State University and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder has found that the effects of climate change, which are apparent in other parts of the Antarctic continent, are not yet observed for glaciers in the …
An international, peer-reviewed publication released each summer, the State of the Climate is the authoritative annual summary of the global climate published as a supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The report, compiled by NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate at the National Centers for Environmental Information …
Antarctica ice sheet breaks off: But while the breaking off of the iceberg is worrisome, experts caution that the glaciers behind it are the bigger problem. The size of the iceberg is lesser of an issue because icebergs, according to scientists, calve all the time and have minimal direct effect …
Arctic winter warming events, winter days when temperatures peak above minus 10 degrees Celsius, are becoming more frequent and lasting longer than they did three decades ago, a new research has found. The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, showed that since 1980, an additional six warming events …
A new giant iceberg is about to be born. According to scientists at the ESA (European Space Agency), "one of the largest icebergs on record" is about to break off from a major Antarctic ice shelf called Larsen C and be "set adrift". The iceberg is reportedly located in the …
Ice-free areas may increase in Antarctica by 25 per cent due to climate change, leading to drastic changes in the continent's biodiversity, a study warns. Researchers, including those from University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia, investigated how ice-free areas in Antarctica may be affected by climate change. "Ice-free areas make …
Climate change will cause ice-free areas on Antarctica to increase by up to a quarter by 2100, threatening the diversity of the unique terrestrial plant and animal life that exists there, according to projections from the first study examining the question in detail. If emissions of greenhouse gasses are not …
A river of meltwater flows over 120-metre wide waterfall in Antarctica Won Sang Lee/Korea Polar Research Institute A new scientific analysis finds that the Earth’s oceans are rising nearly three times as rapidly as they were throughout most of the 20th century, one of the strongest indications yet that a …
Green moss banks on the Antarctic Peninsula. These have been growing 5 times faster since the 1950sMatt Amesbury The growth of green mosses in Antarctica in the past 50 years has shot up due to warming temperatures. Stretches of the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula are covered with deep, green …
A strong quake of magnitude 6.8 struck north of Antarctica on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but it was not expected to cause a tsunami. The quake's epicenter was 61 miles (98 km) northeast of Visokoi Island, part of the South Sandwich Islands archipelago, a British overseas territory. The …
LONDON: Central parts of Antarctica's ice sheet have been stable for millions of years, even when conditions were considerably warmer than present, new research suggests. The study of mountains in West Antarctica may help scientists improve their predictions of how the region might respond to continuing climate change. The findings …
