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.
