{"id":30191,"date":"2016-06-08T13:18:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T12:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/?p=30191"},"modified":"2016-06-08T13:18:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T12:18:42","slug":"the-puzzle-of-antarcticas-long-term-ice-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2016\/06\/08\/the-puzzle-of-antarcticas-long-term-ice-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"The puzzle of Antarctica\u2019s long-term ice loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parts of Antarctica are not only losing ice to the ocean<\/a>, they have been doing so for 40 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Geoscientists from the University of Edinburgh<\/a> and a US colleague report in Geophysical Research Letters<\/a> that they looked at satellite imagery of West Antarctica\u2019s coastline along a 2,000 km stretch and found that the region has lost 1,000 square kilometres of ice in four decades. The surprise is not that melting occurs, but that it has been happening for such a long time.<\/p>\n

Frazer Christie, a PhD student, and partners analysed data from NASA<\/a>, the US Geological Survey<\/a> and the European Space Agency<\/a>\u00a0to find that ice has been retreating along almost the entire coast of Antarctica\u2019s Bellingshausen Sea since satellite records began.<\/p>\n

Some of the largest changes \u2013 where ice has thinned rapidly and retreated several kilometres since 1975 \u2013 matched those places where the ice front is deepest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that ice had been retreating from this region recently, but now, thanks to a wealth of freely available satellite data, we know this has been occurring pervasively along the coastline for almost half a century,\u201d Christie says.<\/p>\n

Colder water<\/strong><\/p>\n

He and his colleagues blame warmer ocean waters, rather than warmer atmosphere.<\/p>\n

But, paradoxically, a study from the University of Washington<\/a> in Seattle, US, reports that the waters lapping the continent are not warming substantially \u2212 because of a steady upwelling of much colder water from the depths<\/a> of the Southern Ocean.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t say warming will not happen, in response to human emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Researchers have consistently\u00a0and\u00a0repeatedly warned that melting is on the way<\/a> and is happening faster than previously thought<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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ICYMI: Davis station said goodbye to the sun for six weeks on Thursday. https:\/\/t.co\/7OpgP8OypQ<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/u2l722y0zN<\/a><\/p>\n

— antarctica.gov.au (@AusAntarctic) June 6, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n