TITLE:
Past, Present and Future Climate of Antarctica
AUTHORS:
Alvarinho J. Luis
KEYWORDS:
Component Antarctic Climate; Discovery; Sea Ice; Glaciers; Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode; Antarctic Warming
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.4 No.6,
August
14,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Anthropogenic warming of near-surface atmosphere in the last
50 years is dominant over the west Antarctic Peninsula. Ozone depletion has led
to partly cooling of the stratosphere. The positive polarity of the Southern Hemisphere
Annular Mode (SAM) index and its enhancement over the past 50 years have intensified
the westerlies over the Southern Ocean, and induced warming of Antarctic Peninsula.
Dictated by local ocean-atmosphere processes and remote forcing, the Antarctic sea
ice extent is increasing, contrary to climate model predictions for the 21st century,
and this increase has strong regional and seasonal signatures. Models incorporating
doubling of present day CO2 predict warming of the Antarctic sea ice
zone, a reduction in sea ice cover, and warming of the Antarctic Plateau, accompanied
by increased snowfall.