Antarctic ice sheet warming more quickly than expected

Discovery News : The average yearly air temperature over the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has risen 2.4 °C since 1958. Derived from 50 years of temperature data collected from Byrd Station in the middle of the ice sheet, the increase is twice what current climate models predicted and triple the rate of most of the rest of the planet. Because most of the additional warming occurs during the summer, when temperatures are already at their highest, the risk that the ice shelves will destabilize is heightened. David Bromwich of the Ohio State University, who led the research, says that the shelves currently hold a large portion of Antarctica’s ice back from the oceans. If the ice shelves destabilize, the ensuing melting could make an even larger contribution to sea-level rise than currently predicted.