Giant iceberg breaks off from Antarctic glacier

Singapore, (Reuters), February 26 2010 - An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event that could affect ocean circulation patterns.
The 2,500 sq km (965 sq mile) iceberg broke off earlier this month from the Mertz Glacier's 160 km (100 miles) floating tongue of ice that sticks out into the Southern Ocean.
> news.bbc.co.uk: Vast Antarctic iceberg 'threatens marine life'
> uk.reuters.com: Giant iceberg breaks off from Antarctic glacier
> uk.reuters.com: Mertz Glacier tongue breaking off

Ice Shelves Disappearing on Antarctic Peninsula

Reston (VA/USA), February 22 - Ice shelves are retreating in the southern section of the Antarctic Peninsula due to climate change. This could result in glacier retreat and sea-level rise if warming continues, threatening coastal communities and low-lying islands worldwide.
Research by the U.S. Geological Survey is the first to document that every ice front in the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula has been retreating overall from 1947 to 2009, with the most dramatic changes occurring since 1990. The USGS previously documented that the majority of ice fronts on the entire Peninsula have also retreated during the late 20th century and into the early 21st century.
> www.usgs.gov: Ice Shelves Disappearing on Antarctic Peninsula
> pubs.usgs.gov: Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Palmer Land Area, Antarctica: 1947—2009

Is Antarctica Melting?

New York, January 12 / 15 2010 - There has been lots of talk lately about Antarctica and whether or not the continent's giant ice sheet is melting. One new paper, which states there’s less surface melting recently than in past years, has been cited as "proof" that there’s no global warming. Other evidence that the amount of sea ice around Antarctica seems to be increasing slightly is being used in the same way. But both of these data points are misleading.
Gravity data collected from space using NASA's Grace satellite show that Antarctica has been losing more than a hundred cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice each year since 2002. The latest data reveal that Antarctica is losing ice at an accelerating rate, too. How is it possible for surface melting to decrease, but for the continent to lose mass anyway? The answer boils down to the fact that ice can flow without melting.
> www.nasa.gov: Is Antarctica Melting?
> climateprogress.org: Large Antarctic Glacier Thinning 4 times faster than it was ten years ago
> Get ready for seven-foot sea level rise as climate change melts ice sheets

Rapid Sea Ice Breakup along the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf

Within a 24-hour space, an area of sea ice larger than the state of Rhode Island broke away from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf and shattered into many smaller pieces. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites captured this event in this series of photo-like images from January 12 and January 13, 2010.
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Rapid Sea Ice Breakup along the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf

Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point'

New York, January 13 2010 - A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point, according to a new modelling study. After losing increasing amounts of ice over the past decades, it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres.
Pine Island glacier (PIG) is one of many at the fringes of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In 2004, satellite observations showed that it had started to thin, and that ice was flowing into the Amundsen Sea 25 per cent faster than it had 30 years before.
Now, the first study to model changes in an ice sheet in three dimensions shows that PIG has probably passed a critical "tipping point" and is irreversibly on track to lose 50 per cent of its ice in as little as 100 years, significantly raising global sea levels.
> www.newscientist.com: Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point'
> www.laboratoryequipment.com: Ice Sheets Reaching Tipping Point
> rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org: Stability of ice-sheet grounding lines (Abstract)

Study: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming

(Princeton / Harvard) / London, December 16 2009 - A new analysis of the geological record of the Earth's sea level, carried out by scientists at Princeton and Harvard universities and published in the Dec. 16 issue of Nature, employs a novel statistical approach that reveals the planet's polar ice sheets are vulnerable to large-scale melting even under moderate global warming scenarios. Such melting would lead to a large and relatively rapid rise in global sea level.
> Study: Earth's polar ice sheets vulnerable to even moderate global warming

First comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate - Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment

London, 1 December 2009 - The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica’s climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published this week (Tuesday 1 December) by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). The review — Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment — presents the latest research from the icy continent, identifies areas for future scientific research, and addresses the urgent questions that policy makers have about Antarctic melting, sea-level rise and biodiversity.
> www.antarctica.ac.uk: First comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica's climate - Antarctic Climate Change and the Environmen

East Antarctic Ice Began To Melt Faster In 2006 - study

Grace estimate of changes in Antarctica's ice mass, measured in centimeters of equivalent water height change per year. The study confirmed previous estimates of ice mass loss in West Antarctica, but also found ice mass loss in East Antarctica, primarily in coastal regions (depicted in light blue). Credit: University of Texas at Austin Center for Space Research

London, November 22, 2009 - East Antarctica's ice started to melt faster from 2006, which could cause sea levels to rise sooner than anticipated, according to a study by scientists at the University of Texas.
In the study published in Nature's Geoscience journal, scientists estimated that East Antarctica has been losing ice mass at an average rate of 5 to 109 gigatonnes per year from April 2002 to January 2009, but the rate speeded up from 2006.
The melt rate after 2006 could be even higher, the scientists said.
Accurate quantification of Antarctic ice-sheet mass balance and its contribution to global sea-level rise remains challenging. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment data spanning the period April 2002 to January 2009 confirm earlier estimates of ice loss for Antarctica and indicate that East Antarctica started losing mass in about 2006, according to a letter in Nature's Geoscience of November 22.
> www.nature.com: Accelerated Antarctic ice loss from satellite gravity measurements
> jpl.nasa.gov: The Big Thaw? NASA Satellites Detect Unexpected Ice Loss in East Antarctica
> news.bbc.co.uk: East Antarctic ice sheet may be losing mass
> planetark.org: East Antarctic Ice Began To Melt Faster In 2006 - study
> climateprogress.org: Satellite data stunner....

Antarctic temperature spike surprises climate researchers

London, November 18 2009 - During the warm periods between recent ice ages, temperatures in Antarctica reached substantially higher levels than scientists had previously thought. This conclusion, based on ice-core studies, implies that East Antarctica is more sensitive than it seemed to global warming.
> www.nature.com: Antarctic temperature spike surprises climate researchers
> planetearth.nerc.ac.uk: Mysterious warm periods found in Antarctic history

Is Pine Island Glacier the Weak Underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?

Real Climate, 9 November 2009 - It is popularly understood that glaciologists consider West Antarctica the biggest source of uncertainty in sea level projections. The base of the 3000-m thick West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) – unlike the much larger East Antarctic Ice Sheet – lies below sea level, and it has been recognized for a long time that this means it has the potential to change very rapidly. Most of the grounded West Antarctic ice sheet drains into the floating Ross and Ronne-Filchner ice shelves, but a significant fraction also drains into the much smaller Pine Island Glacier. Glaciologists are paying very close attention to Pine Island Glacier (”PIG” on map, right) and nearby Thwaites Glacier. In the following guest post, Mauri Pelto explains why.
> www.realclimate.org: Is Pine Island Glacier the Weak Underbelly of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?

Hampton Glacier, Alexander Island, Antarctica melts

Washington, October 14 th, 2009 - Few places on Earth have warmed more rapidly in recent decades than the Antarctic Peninsula, a narrow, mountainous spine of land that juts out from the continent into the Southern Ocean. More than 400 glaciers—often steep and heavily traced with crevasses—flow out of nearly every nook and cranny of the rugged peninsula, and the regional warming has caused the edges of many of these glaciers to retreat and their flow toward the ocean to accelerate. Faster flow of tidewater glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula is adding directly to sea level rise.
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Hampton Glacier, Alexander Island, Antarctica melts

Peering under the ice of a collapsing polar coast

Washington, October 7th, 2009 - Starting this month, a giant NASA DC-8 aircraft loaded with geophysical instruments and scientists will buzz at low level over the coasts of West Antarctica, where ice sheets are collapsing at a pace far beyond what scientists expected a few years ago. The flights, dubbed Operation Ice Bridge, are an effort by NASA in cooperation with university researchers to image what is happening on, and under, the ice, in order to estimate future sea-level rises that might result.
> www.physorg.com: Peering under the ice of a collapsing polar coast

Lasers from space show thinning of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets

London, September 23, 2009 — The most comprehensive picture of the rapidly thinning glaciers along the coastline of both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets has been created using satellite lasers. The findings are an important step forward in the quest to make more accurate predictions for future sea level rise.
www.antarctica.ac.uk: Lasers from space show thinning of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets
> planetearth.nerc.ac.uk: Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet thinning spreads
> www.independent.co.uk: Ancient glaciers are disappearing faster than ever

Antarctic coastal ice thinning surprises experts

Oslo, September 23 2009 - Scientists are surprised at how extensively coastal ice in Antarctica and Greenland is thinning, according to a study Wednesday that could help predict rising sea levels linked to climate change.
> www.reuters.com: Antarctic coastal ice thinning surprises experts

Just a big downer?

London, September 22, 2009 — Satellite images reveal just how quickly the Antarctic Ice Sheet is changing. But how long has this been going on? Revisiting old studies can illuminate a complex situation, as Matt King explains.
planetearth.nerc.ac.uk: Just a big downer?

New Carbon Dioxide Data Helps Unlock The Secrets Of Antarctic Formation

London, September 14, 2009 — The link between declining CO2 levels in the earth's atmosphere and the formation of the Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago has been confirmed for the first time in a major research study.
The study's findings, published in Nature online, confirm that atmospheric CO2 declined during the Eocene - Oligocene climate transition and that the Antarctic ice sheet began to form when CO2 in the atmosphere reached a tipping point of around 760 parts per million (by volume).
> www.sciencedaily.com: New Carbon Dioxide Data Helps Unlock The Secrets Of Antarctic Formation
> www.reuters.com: Scientists find CO2 link to Antarctic ice cap origin
> planetearth.nerc.ac.uk: Lower carbon dioxide triggered Antarctic ice sheet formation

What's Holding Antarctic Sea Ice Back From Melting?

(PhysOrg.com), September 2 2009 - Global temperatures are increasing. Sea levels are rising. Ice sheets in many areas of the world are retreating. Yet there’s something peculiar going on in the oceans around Antarctica: even as global air and ocean temperatures march upward, the extent of the sea ice around the southern continent isn’t decreasing. In fact, it's increasing.
> www.physorg.com: What's Holding Antarctic Sea Ice Back From Melting?

Computer model documents the history of the West Antarctic ice sheet

(PhysOrg.com), August 28 2009 - One major threat of planetary warming is the melting of the great polar ice sheets, and the resulting rise in global sea level. Particularly worrisome to researchers is the fragility of the West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS), whose bed lies well below sea-level, accelerating the natural flow between the grounded ice sheet itself and the floating ice shelves that make up its boundary.
www.physorg.com: Computer model documents the history of the West Antarctic ice sheet

Antarctic glacier thinning at alarming rate

Leeds, August 14 2009 - The thinning of a gigantic glacier in Antarctica is accelerating, scientists warned today. The Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica, which is around twice the size of Scotland, is losing ice four times as fast as it was a decade years ago.
The research, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, also reveals that ice thinning is now occurring much further inland. At this rate scientists estimate that the main section of the glacier will have disappeared in just 100 years, six times sooner than was previously thought.
> www.eurekalert.org: Antarctic glacier thinning at alarming rate
> planetearth.nerc.ac.uk: Pine Island glacier may disappear within 100 years
> news.bbc.co.uk: Antarctic glacier 'thinning fast'

South Pole Sea Ice at 2008 Maximum and 2009 Minimum

Washington, May 23 / 26 2009 - Antarctic sea ice grows to its maximum each September and melts to its minimum in late February, after which it resumes growing rapidly. This image pair shows monthly Antarctic sea ice concentration for the most recent winter maximum (September 2008, left) and summer minimum (February 2009, right). The images are two of the series of images in the recent article World of Change: Antarctic Sea Ice, which documents Antarctic sea ice maximums and minimums over the past decade.
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: South Pole Sea Ice at 2008 Maximum and 2009 Minimum
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Antarctic Sea Ice from 1999 - 2009
> www.enn.com: Is Antarctica Cooling After All? (May 26 2009)

Scientists expecting massive iceberg from glacier crack

Sydney, May 8 2009 - A massive iceberg with enough freshwater in it to fill Sydney Harbour 135 times over is about to break off the Mertz glacier in Antarctica.
The iceberg will be 75 kilometres long and contains 750,000 gigalitres of ice which is apparently quite a lot.
www.abc.net: Scientists expecting massive iceberg from glacier crack

Global warming blamed for unstable ice shelf in Antarctica

Noordwijk / Bonn, April 30 2009 - Satellite images of Antarctica show a huge ice shelf has become unstable, with icebergs breaking off it, in the latest evidence of climate change.
The Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Researchers believe it was held in place by an ice bridge linking Charcot Island to the Antarctic mainland.
But the 127-square-mile (330-square-kilometer) bridge lost two large chunks last year and then shattered completely on 5 April.
"As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front, widened and new cracks formed as the ice adjusted," the European Space Agency said in a statement today on its Web site.
> www.telegraph.co.uk: Global warming blamed for unstable ice shelf in Antarctica
> www.independent.co.uk: Hundreds of miles of ice drop from Antarctic shelf
> www.esa.int: Satellite imagery shows fragile Wilkins Ice Shelf destabilised (28-04)

Antarctica: Another Ice Shelf Falls Away

Buenos Aires / Los Angeles, April 6 / 7 / 8 - Accelerated warming in the Antarctic Peninsula has caused the loss of over 85 percent of the ice shelves surrounding the northern half of the peninsula in the last 20 years, experts say.
The latest collapse occurred on the weekend. The Wilkins ice shelf, an ice sheet up to 250 metres thick located on the southwestern side of the peninsula - the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica - had already shrunk from a surface area of 16,000 to 13,700 square kilometres.
> www.ipsnews.net: Another Ice Shelf Falls Away
> www.independent.co.uk: Climate warning as Antarctic ice bridge shatters
> www.telegraph.co.uk: Antarctica ice bridge linking islands 'snaps'
> www.reuters.com: Video / Ice shelf brink of collapse (Apr 6 2009)
> www.abc.net.au: Antarctic ice shelf in peril as bridge snaps
> www.sciam.com: Skating on thin ice: Why the poles might need environmental police (April 7 2009)
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Wilkins Ice Bridge Collapse (April 8 2009)
> planetark.org: Ice Bridge Holding Antarctic Ice Shelf Cracks Up (April 8 2009)

In Antarctica, Wilkins Ice Shelf snaps

Wilkins Ice Shelf, April 6 - It’s not often you go to a part of the world that disappears from the map a few weeks later.
> blogs.reuters.com: In Antarctica, Wilkins Ice Shelf snaps

Collapse Of The Ice Bridge Supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf Appears Imminent

ScienceDaily, April 4, 2009 — The Wilkins Ice Shelf is at risk of partly breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula as the ice bridge that connects it to Charcot and Latady Islands looks set to collapse. The beginning of what appears to be the demise of the ice bridge began this week when new rifts forming along its centre axis resulted in a large block of ice breaking away.
> www.sciencedaily.com: Collapse Of The Ice Bridge Supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf Appears Imminent
> lists.grist.org: Watch the ice shelf collapse
> www.esa.int: Collapse of the ice bridge supporting Wilkins Ice Shelf appears imminent (Apr 3, 2009)
> www.esa.int: Wilkins Ice Shelf under threat (Nov 26, 2008)

Antarctic Ice Close To Melting Tipping Point

Sydney, March 17 2009 - A large part of the ice covering West Antarctica could be lost if greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increase only slightly from today's levels and ocean temperatures continue to rise, a study released on Thursday says.
Another related study said if the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsed and the East Antarctic ice sheet continued to melt at its marine margins, global sea level would rise seven meters from today's level.
www.sciencedaily.com: Climate Warming Affects Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability
www.independent.co.uk: Melting of Antarctic ice becoming unstoppable
www.planetark.org: Antarctic Ice Close To Melting Tipping Point
www.physorg.com: West Antarctic ice comes and goes, rapidly
www.nature.com: When the ice sheet melted

Ice in east Antarctica a bigger threat long term
February 26th, 2009 - Antarctica's western ice sheet is pushing ever faster into the sea, but scientists know an even greater long-term threat lies here in the vast, little-explored whiteness of east Antarctica.
www.physorg.com: Ice in east Antarctica a bigger threat long term

Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels
Geneva, February 25 2009 - The Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming faster than previously thought, raising world sea levels and making drastic global climate change more likely than ever, international scientists said.
New evidence of the trend was uncovered by wide-ranging research in the two areas over the past two years in a United Nations-backed program dubbed the International Polar Year (IPY), they said.
> www.reuters.com: Polar regions found warming fast, raising sea levels
> news.bbc.co.uk: Polar Year 'hailed as a success'
> www.physorg.com: Study: Antarctic glaciers slipping swiftly seaward
> afp.com: Scientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt

Polar research reveals new evidence of global environmental change
Geneva, 25 February 2009 – Multidisciplinary research from the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 provides new evidence of the widespread effects of global warming in the polar regions. Snow and ice are declining in both polar regions, affecting human livelihoods as well as local plant and animal life in the Arctic, as well as global ocean and atmospheric circulation and sea level. These are but a few findings reported in “State of Polar Research”, released today by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU). In addition to lending insight into climate change, IPY has aided our understanding of pollutant transport, species’ evolution, and storm formation, among many other areas.
www.wmo.int: Polar research reveals new evidence of global environmental change

Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet melting, rate unknown
Chicago, February 16 2009 -- The Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets are melting, but the amounts that will melt and the time it will take are still unknown, according to Richard Alley, Evan Pugh professor of geosciences, Penn State.
www.physorg.com: Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet melting, rate unknown

Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic 'cooling'

January 21, 2009 - Scientists have solved the enigma of the Antarctic apparently getting cooler, while the rest of the world heats up.
New research shows that while some parts of the frozen continent have been getting slightly colder over the last few decades, the average temperature across the continent has been rising for at least the last 50 years.
This research 'kills off' climate sceptic argument by showing average temperature across the continent has risen over the last 50 years.
> www.nasa.gov: Satellites Confirm Half-Century of West Antarctic Warming
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Antarctic Warming Trends
> www.guardian.co.uk: Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic 'cooling'
> www.reuters.com: Antarctica is warming, not cooling
> news.bbc.co.uk: New evidence on Antarctic warming
> www.giss.nasa.gov: Satellites Confirm Half-Century of West Antarctic Warming
> www.nature.com: Warming of the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 International Geophysical Year (Abstract)
> www.realclimate.org: State of Antarctica: red or blue?
Sea level rise: Mapping In A One Meter Sea Level Rise

Antarctic Ice Shelf Set To Collapse Due To Warming

Wilkins ice shelf, January 20, 2009 - A huge Antarctic ice shelf is on the brink of collapse with just a sliver of ice holding it in place, the latest victim of global warming that is altering maps of the frozen continent.
"We've come to the Wilkins Ice Shelf to see its final death throes," David Vaughan, a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), told Reuters after the first -- and probably last -- plane landed near the narrowest part of the ice.
www.nature.com:Antarctica hit by climate change

The mystery of Antarctica's speeding glacier
January 6, 2009 - With the possible exception of the ice that covers Greenland, the West Antarctic ice shelf is the most important body of water in the world. If it thaws, the results will be disastrous for millions, raising sea levels and flooding coastal cities such as London, New York, Tokyo and Calcutta. So it is understandable that scientists are alarmed as to why one particular section of it - Pine Island Glacier - is melting so much faster than the rest.
www.enn.com: The mystery of Antarctica's speeding glacier

Floods under Antarctic ice speed glaciers into sea: study
November 16, 2008 - Scientists unveiled the first direct evidence that massive floods deep below Antarctica's ice cover are accelerating the flow of glaciers into the sea.
www.physorg.com: The Future of the Poles

The Future of the Poles
November 12, 2008 - Both the North and South poles are undergoing unprecedented changes as a result of man-made climate change. What does this mean for the region's wildlife and natural resources as countries compete for the region?
www.sciam.com: The Future of the Poles

Man is to blame for Antarctic temperature rise

London, October 30, 2008 - Man has been blamed for the first time for rising temperatures in the Antarctic. Scientists say they now have conclusive proof that warming is due to man's influence mainly through greenhouse gases and ozone depletion.
"We have detected the human fingerprint in both the Arctic and Antarctic region[s]," says Peter Stott, a climate modeler at the U.K. Met (meteorological) Office's Hadley Center, and co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The findings contradict the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said that Antarctica was the only continent where the human impact on the climate had not been observed.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Man is to blame for Antarctic temperature rise
www.independent.co.uk: Climate change at the poles IS man-made
www.sciam.com: Warmer Antarctica Shows Climate Changing on Every Continent
www.nature.com: Antarctica hit by climate change

Scientists to Probe Antarctica for Sea Rise Clues
Oslo (No), October 17, 2008 — Scientists will visit a vulnerable part of an Antarctic ice shelf this year to work out if it will crack off in coming decades and perhaps trigger a rise in sea levels, they said on Thursday.
www.planetark.com: Scientists to Probe Antarctica for Sea Rise Clues

Plight Of The Penguins
Washington, DC, October 10, 2008 — Half to three-quarters of major Antarctic penguin colonies — including the iconic Emperor Penguin, which was made famous by the blockbuster hit March of the Penguins — will likely experience significant decline or disappearance as a result of climate change, according to a new report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
www.enn.com: www.realclimate.org

What links the retreat of Jakobshavn Isbrae, Wilkins Ice Shelf and the Petermann Glacier?
October 7, 2008 - Changes occurring in marine terminating outlet glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet and ice shelves fringing the Antarctic Peninsula have altered our sense of the possible rate of response of large ice sheet-ice shelf systems. There is a shared mechanism at work that has emerged from the detailed observations of a number of researchers, that is the key to the onset and progression of the ice retreat. This mechanism is shared despite the vastly different nature of the environments of Jakobshavns Isbrae, Wilkins Ice Shelf and the Petermann Glacier.
www.realclimate.org: www.realclimate.org

Lost penguins get Brazil air lift
Cabo Frio (Bra) October 4, 2008 - Hundreds of penguins have been returned to their native territory in the south Atlantic ocean by an air force plane after being found along Brazil's coast.
news.bbc.co.uk: Lost penguins get Brazil air lift

IU sends innovative technology to Antarctica to speed polar research
Bloomington (Ind/US) September 23, 2008 - Environmental scientists studying the world's shrinking polar ice sheets will soon get a substantial boost in computing power thanks to IU's Polar Grid Project.
Funded by a $1.96 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Indiana University and Polar Grid partners Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) and the NSF's Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS), headquartered at the University of Kansas, are poised this week to deploy a collection of customized computational resources to Antarctica that will allow scientists -- both on site and remotely -- to more securely and efficiently process data during polar field expeditions.
www.eurekalert.org: IU sends innovative technology to Antarctica to speed polar research

Antarctic Winter Ice Gets Bigger; Arctic Shrinks
Oslo (No) September 15, 2008 - The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers in what could be an unusual side-effect of global warming, experts said on Friday.
www.planetark.com: Antarctic Winter Ice Gets Bigger; Arctic Shrinks

Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific
August 15, 2008 - Dramatic year-to-year temperature swings and a century-long warming trend across West Antarctica are linked to conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to a new analysis of ice cores conducted by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Washington (UW).
www.enn.com: Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical

Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica
August 5, 2008 - A lost world has been found in Antarctica, preserved just the way it was when it was frozen in time some 14 million years ago.
www.enn.com: Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica

Wintertime Disintegration of Wilkins Ice Shelf
July 22, 2008 - On the Antarctic Peninsula, the Wilkins Ice Shelf (roughly 70 degrees south and 75 degrees west) historically extended toward Charcot Island in the northwest and Latady Island in the southwest. By July 2008, the ice shelf’s connection to Charcot Island, which had helped to hold the shelf in place, was nearly gone.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Wintertime Disintegration of Wilkins Ice Shelf

Retreating Antarctic sea ice threatens southern whales
London, June 19, 2008 - The retreat of Antarctic sea ice because of global warming will threaten already endangered migratory whales by reducing their feeding areas, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Thursday.
www.reuters.com: Retreating Antarctic sea ice threatens southern whales

Freshening of deep Antarctic waters worries experts

Singapore, April 18 2008 - Scientists studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world's climate and ocean currents.
The scientists returned to the southern Australian city of Hobart on Thursday after a one-month voyage studying the Southern Ocean to see how it is changing and what those changes might mean for global climate patterns.
www.reuters.com: Freshening of deep Antarctic waters worries experts

Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegration Underscores a Warming World

London / Washington, March 26 2008 - A 160 square mile chunk of Antarctica's Wilkens ice shelf is collapsing in the continent's fast warming southwest Antarctic Peninsula. "Block after block of ice is just tumbling and crumbling into the ocean.
The shelf is not just cracking off and a piece goes drifting away, but totally shattering." Given the Connecticut sized collapsing shelf is permanent floating ice, in itself this will not lead to sea level rise. But loss of ice shelves does make it easier for land ice to melt and otherwise move into the ocean.
Along with Arctic sea and glacial ice melt, this is dramatic visual evidence illustrating the advanced state of global heating. The time for the discussions of small thinking in response to climate change and global ecological crises is long since past. Simply, light bulbs and Priuses, biofuels and carbon trading, are not going to do it. Only a comprehensive program of social change -- things like ending coal use and ancient forest logging, while reducing human population and consumption -- pursued through intense advocacy, awareness building and profound personal and societal revolution, will save us now. (source: Glen Barry)
www.planetark.org: Slab Of Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses Amid Warming
www.timesonline.co.uk: Vast iceberg breaks off Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctic
www.guardian.co.uk: Giant Antarctic ice shelf breaks into the sea (incl video)
nsidc.org: Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegration Underscores a Warming World (incl photo's)
www.antarctica.ac.uk: Antarctic ice shelf ‘hangs by a thread’ (incl photo's)
www.physorg.com: Antarctic ice shelf disintegrating as result of climate change, say scientists (incl photo's)

New Research Confirms Antarctic Thaw Fears
London / Washington, March 9 2008 - New research confirms that ice sheets in West Antarctica are thinning at a far faster rate than in past millennia. Although scientists are divided as to the cause of the melt, many feel it is directly related to climate change.
www.spiegel.de: New Research Confirms Antarctic Thaw Fears

Antarctic boulders may point to sea level rise
Oslo, February 29, 2008 - Boulders as big as soccer balls show that a thinning of West Antarctic glaciers has become 20 times faster in recent decades and may hold clues to future sea level rise, scientists said on Friday.
www.reuters.com: Antarctic boulders may point to sea level rise
www.reuters.com: Southern Ocean rise so far due to warming, not ice melts
today.uci.edu: Antarctic ice loss speeds up, nearly matches Greenland loss
www.antarctica.ac.uk: Rock studies help crack questions of glacier thinning in West Antarctica
www.antarctica.ac.uk: A doubling in snow accumulation in the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean
Antarctica, February 24, 2008 - UK scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.
If the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.
The new evidence comes from a group of glaciers covering an area the size of Texas, in a remote and seldom visited part of West Antarctica.
The "rivers of ice" have surged sharply in speed towards the ocean.
bbc.co.uk: Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean

Field Dispatch: Natural Habitat Antarctica Trip Pt.1
Antarctica, February 12, 2008 - "I am actually on my way - and I couldn't be more excited! Years of anticipation and hard work have finally paid off, and I'm headed to Antarctica. A world of ice and rock, water and sky, wind and cold. And, some of the richest, most unspoiled wildlife habitat on Planet Earth..."
www.enn.com: Natural Habitat Antarctica Trip Pt.1

Signs of Summer Thaw on the Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctica, February 5, 2008 - The tip of the Antarctic Peninsula showed dramatic seasonal changes in late January 2008. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image on January 24, 2008, when the fast ice—ice anchored to the shoreline—looked solidly frozen. Several days later, on January 30, 2008, the ice’s new blue hue suggested something had changed....
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Signs of Summer Thaw on the Antarctic Peninsula

Antarctic ice riddle keeps sea-level secrets
Troll Station, Antarctica , January 31 2008 - A deep freeze holding 90 percent of the world's ice, Antarctica is one of the biggest puzzles in the debate on global warming with risks that any thaw could raise sea levels faster than U.N. projections.
www.reuters.com: Antarctic ice riddle keeps sea-level secrets

Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Up, Nearly Matches Greenland Loss

Washington (DC/US), January 23 2008 — Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study by NASA and university scientists.
www.jpl.nasa.gov: Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Up, Nearly Matches Greenland Loss
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Signs of Summer Thaw on the Antarctic Peninsula

Alarm bells ringing about Antarctic thaw: Norway PM
Troll Stayion, (Antarctica), January 20, 2008 - Alarm bells are ringing about risks of a quickening thaw of Antarctica that would drive up world sea levels, Norway's Prime Minister said on Sunday after a visit to the icy continent.
www.reuters.com: Antarctica melting: Alarm bells ringing about Antarctic thaw

Antarctic melting: the full picture could be more complex

London, 16 January 2008 - Recent reports claim that ice loss from the Antarctic is accelerating, leading to concerns that the rate of future sea level-rise has been underestimated. But the full picture could be more complex.
www.metoffice.gov.uk: Antarctica melting: the full picture could be more complex

Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 years
London, January 14, 2008 - Parts of the ice sheets covering Antarctica are melting faster than predicted, with the net loss of ice probably accelerating in recent years because of global warming, a study has found.
A satellite survey between 1996 and 2006 found that the net loss of ice from Antarctica rose by about 75 per cent as the movement of glaciers towards the sea speeded up.
environment.independent.co.uk: Loss of Antarctic ice has soared by 75 per cent in just 10 years
environment.independent.co.uk: Antarctica lost more ice in last 10 years: study

Antarctic ice loss speeding up

Antarctica is gaining in the middle, but loosing more at the edges

London, January 12, 2008 - Shrinking continent is losing ice faster today than a decade ago. A comprehensive study of Antarctica’s ice confirms that the polar cap is shrinking. In 2006 alone, Antarctica lost nearly 200 billion tonnes of ice, researchers say — the equivalent of a global sea level rise of more than half a millimetre. That’s 75% more than losses in 1996, they add.
www.nature.com: Antarctic ice loss speeding up

Two Decades of Temperature Change in Antarctica

Washington, November 20 2007 - Climate scientists who want to know how average temperatures on Antarctica might be changing must wrestle with the fact that ground-based weather stations are few and far between, especially in the continent's high-altitude interior.
Although automated weather stations are generally assumed to be the most accurate record-keepers, their sparseness makes it hard for scientists to be confident of what is happening across the entire continent.
Although satellite-based temperature records have their own limitations (most significantly, cloud interference), they provide a complete, continuous view of the continent from the early 1980s onward.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Two Decades of Temperature Change in Antarctica

The power games that threaten world’s last pristine wilderness
Eduardo Frei Montalva Base, (Antarctica), November 13 2007 - Rival nations are extending their territorial claims as retreating glaciers make Antarctic oil exploration feasible.
www.timesonline.co.uk: The power games that threaten world’s last pristine wilderness

U.N. chief sees Antarctic meltdown

Chilean Presidente Eduardo Frei base, Antarctica, November 9 2007 -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the Antarctica to see firsthand the impact of climate change and the melting of glaciers.
A fleeting visit, perhaps, but one which underscores how rapidly global warming is rising up the political agenda. Mr Ban was on a fact-finding mission over the weekend ahead of a major United Nations conference on climate change in Bali next month.
environment.independent.co.uk: UN chief visits scientists in Antarctica for global warming fact-finding tour
www.cnn.com: U.N. chief sees Antarctic meltdown
www.timesonline.co.uk 10-24-07: UN chief Ban Ki Moon skates over Antarctica row

At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate
Washington, October 22 2007 - For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth. The epic already has started. And it's not fiction.
The scenes are playing, at the start, in slow motion: The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away. The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago. In the summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low; this summer the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly the size of Alaska. Where explorer Robert Peary just 102 years ago saw "a great white disk stretching away apparently infinitely" from Ellesmere Island, there is often nothing now but open water. Glaciers race into the sea from the island of Greenland, beginning an inevitable rise in the oceans.
www.washingtonpost.com: At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate
www.washingtonpost.com: In the Greenhouse, Confronting a Changing Climate
www.washingtonpost.com: The Threat of Climate Change

Antarctica needs urgent conservation action
London, October 17, 2007 - Urgent action is needed to save one of the world's last great wildernesses, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, conservationists have warned. Climate change, unsustainable fishing and the introduction of non-native creatures have combined to put massive pressure on the area's wildlife.
www.telegraph.co.uk: Antarctica needs urgent conservation action

NASA Researchers Find Snowmelt in Antarctica Creeping Inland

Satellite imagery shows the number of Antarctic melting days for the 2004 - 2005 season. Areas where melting occurred for a greater number of days are indicated in increasingly darker red. Click on the image for Nasa's article. Credit: NASA/Rob Simmon

Washington, September 20, 2007 - On the world's coldest continent of Antarctica, the landscape is so vast and varied that only satellites can fully capture the extent of changes in the snow melting across its valleys, mountains, glaciers and ice shelves. In a new NASA study, researchers using 20 years of data from space-based sensors have confirmed that Antarctic snow is melting farther inland from the coast over time, melting at higher altitudes than ever and increasingly melting on Antarctica's largest ice shelf.
www.nasa.gov: NASA Researchers Find Snowmelt in Antarctica Creeping Inland

Retreat of the penguins
Sydney, September 05, 2007 In 1929 Australian adventurer and photographer Frank Hurley snapped a picture of the bleak landscape of Heard Island, in the bitterly cold Southern Ocean. He recorded for posterity a thriving colony of photogenic macaroni penguins as well as the rocky site, Erratic Point.
Seventy-one years later, seabird ecologist Eric Woehler stood where Hurley had placed his tripod. With a click of the shutter the University of Tasmania scientist captured the same view: rocks, coastline, ocean, penguins. It was the same, but different.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au: Retreat of the penguins

Tipping points in the Earth system

London, August 30, 2007 - (by Timothy M. Lenton) - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its many excellent reports tends to portray climate change as a smooth transition. Although the projections are rarely straight lines the underlying system and its responses appear ‘linear’ (in mathematical terms). There are, of course, exceptions to this, notable ones being the possible collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation or irreversible melt of the Greenland ice sheet, which both get significant attention in the latest IPCC report (IPCC, 2007). These represent large scale ‘non-linear’ components of the Earth system.
researchpages.net: Tipping points in the Earth system

Researchers Say Antarctic Ice Sheet Stable
Wellington (NZ), June 27, 2007 - An ice sheet in Antarctica that is the world's largest -- with enough water to raise global sea levels by 200 feet -- is relatively stable and poses no immediate threat, according to new research.
www.enn.com: Researchers Say Antarctic Ice Sheet Stable

Rising sea levels could divide and conquer Antarctic ice
Wellington, June 23, 2007 - EARTH'S largest ice sheet has till now seemed well able to withstand the effects of climate change, but it may have a hidden weakness. While models predict the air over the East Antarctic ice sheet will remain chilly enough to prevent significant melting for at least a century, a new study suggests that rising sea levels - caused by melting elsewhere - could be its undoing (Geology, vol 35, p 551).
www.newscientist.com: Rising sea levels could divide and conquer Antarctic ice

Icebergs are 'ecological hotspot'
London, June 22, 2007 - Drifting icebergs are "ecological hotspots" that enable the surrounding waters to absorb an increased volume of carbon dioxide, a study suggests.
news.bbc.co.uk: Icebergs are 'ecological hotspot'

Global Warming Threatens Scott's Antarctic Base
New York, June 9 2007 - The Antarctic base occupied by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole on foot early last century has been included by World Monuments Fund (WMF) on a list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.
The WMF identified climate change as the biggest threat to the hut, built in 1911 at Cape Evans by Captain Scott's British Antarctic expedition. The hut is wooden but for decades was permanently frozen. With the ice melting, the timbers have become waterlogged and are rotting.
www.usatoday.com: Global Warming Threatens Scott's Antarctic Base
www.panda.org / Climate Witness: Robert Swan, Antarctica

World Environment Day homes in on fear of melting ice

Tromsoe, Norway - June 5, 2007 - The world marked Environment Day on Tuesday with cheerful events like tree-planting and solar cooking in the heat of Asia, but also gloomier talk in the not-so-frozen north of melting polar caps.
A new United Nations report says melting glaciers and ice sheets caused by global warming could disrupt drinking and agricultural water supplies for up to 40 percent of the world's population. The report released Monday said the depletion of ice caps could also contribute to global warming because the ice sheets reflect the sun's heat away from the Earth's surface. It also warns that such low-lying countries as Bangladesh and Indonesia could face severe flooding by melting.
www.reuters.com: World Environment Day homes in on fear of melting ice
www.reuters.com: Melting Ice, Snow to Hit Livelihoods Worldwide - UN
www.aftenposten.no: Climate experts sound new alarms in Tromsø
www.unep.org: Melting Ice-A Hot Topic? New UNEP Report Shows Just How Hot It's Getting
www.unep.org: Melting Ice, a Hot Topic?

NASA Finds Vast Regions of West Antarctica Melted in Recent Past

May 15, 2007 - A team of NASA and university scientists has found clear evidence that extensive areas of snow melted in west Antarctica in January 2005 in response to warm temperatures. This was the first widespread Antarctic melting ever detected with NASA's QuikScat satellite and the most significant melt observed using satellites during the past three decades. Combined, the affected regions encompassed an area as big as California.
www.jpl.nasa.gov: NASA Finds Vast Regions of West Antarctica Melted in Recent Past
www.iht.com: Snow has melted deep in the interior of Antarctica
www.spiegel.de: Großflächige Schneeschmelze in der Antarktis beobachtet (incl Video

Scientists: Antarctic ice sheet thinning
Houston, March 29, 2007 - A Texas-sized piece of the Antarctic ice sheet is thinning, possibly due to global warming, and could cause the world's oceans to rise significantly, polar ice experts said on Wednesday.
They said "surprisingly rapid changes" were occurring in Antarctica's Amundsen Sea Embayment, which faces the southern Pacific Ocean, but that more study was needed to know how fast it was melting and how much it could cause the sea level to rise. Amundsen holds enough water to raise world sea levels close to 20 feet.
www.cnn.com: Antarctic ice sheet thinning
www.eurekalert.org: Warm winter also in the Arctic

Antarctic melting may be speeding up
Hobart, March 23, 2007 - (Reuters) - Rising sea levels and melting polar ice-sheets are at upper limits of projections, leaving some human population centers already unable to cope, top world scientists say as they analyze latest satellite data.
www.reuters.com: Antarctic melting may be speeding up
www.planetark.com: Southern Ocean Current Faces Slowdown Threat

Gravity Measurements Help Melt Ice Mysteries
Greenbelt (MD/USA), March 23, 2007 - Greenland is cold and hot. It's a deep freezer storing 10 percent of Earth's ice and a subject of fevered debate. If something should melt all that ice, global sea level could rise as much as 7 meters (23 feet). Greenland and Antarctica - Earth's two biggest icehouses - are important indicators of climate change and a high priority for research, as highlighted by the newly inaugurated International Polar Year.
Just a few years ago, the world's climate scientists predicted that Greenland wouldn't have much impact at all on sea level in the coming decades. But recent measurements show that Greenland's ice cap is melting much faster than expected.
www.nasa.gov: Gravity Measurements Help Melt Ice Mysteries

Antarctic Ice Sheet's Hidden Lakes Speed Ice Flow Into Ocean, May Disrupt Climate

New York, 05 March 2007 - Researchers have unearthed how water from a vast subglacial system contributes to the formation of ice streams and plays a crucial role in transporting ice from the remote interior of Antarctica toward the surrounding ocean.
earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Antarctic Ice Sheet's Hidden Lakes Speed Ice Flow Into Ocean, May Disrupt Climate
www.nasa.gov: idem / pictures

Climate change: scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
London, February 20, 2007 - A critical meltdown of ice sheets and severe sea level rise could be inevitable because of global warming, the world's scientists are preparing to warn their governments. New studies of Greenland and Antarctica have forced a UN expert panel to conclude there is a 50% chance that widespread ice sheet loss "may no longer be avoided" because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
environment.guardian.co.uk: Scientists warn it may be too late to save the ice caps
news.independent.co.uk 160207: Scientists sound alarm over melting Antarctic ice sheets

Scientists sound alarm over melting Antarctic ice sheets
San Fransisco, 16 February 2007 - The long-term stability of the massive ice sheets of Antarctica, which have the potential to raise sea levels by hundreds of metres, has been called into question with the discovery of fast-moving rivers of water sliding beneath their base.
independent.co.uk: Scientists sound alarm over melting Antarctic ice sheets

Pollution Soaring to Crisis Levels in Arctic
Svalbard, March 12, 2006 - Researchers have uncovered compelling evidence that indicates Earth's most vulnerable regions - the North and South Poles - are poised on the brink of a climatic disaster.
The scientists, at an atmospheric monitoring station in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard, have found that levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere near the North Pole are now rising at an unprecedented pace.
In 1990 this key cause of global warming was rising at a rate of 1 part per million (ppm). Recently, that rate reached 2 ppm per year. Now, scientists at the Mount Zeppelin monitoring station have discovered it is rising at between 2.5 and 3 ppm.
observer.guardian.co.uk: Pollution Soaring to Crisis Levels in Arctic
www.commondreams.org: Idem

The Tipping Point?
December 6, 2005 - (by Jim Hansen) - The Earth's climate is nearing, but has not passed, a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to avoid climate change with far-ranging undesirable consequences. These include not only the loss of the Arctic as we know it, with all that implies for wildlife and indigenous peoples, but losses on a much vaster scale due to rising seas.
Ocean levels will increase slowly at first, as losses at the fringes of Greenland and Antarctica due to accelerating ice streams are nearly balanced by increased snowfall and ice sheet thickening in the ice sheet interiors.
But as Greenland and West Antarctic ice is softened and lubricated by meltwater, and as buttressing ice shelves disappear because of a warming ocean, the balance will tip toward the rapid disintegration of ice sheets.
The Earth's history suggests that with warming of two to three degrees, the new sea level will include not only most of the ice from Greenland and West Antarctica, but a portion of East Antarctica, raising the sea level by twenty-five meters, or eighty feet. Within a century, coastal dwellers will be faced with irregular flooding associated with storms. They will have to continually rebuild above a transient water level.
This grim scenario can be halted if the growth of greenhouse gas emissions is slowed in the first quarter of this century.
(From a presentation to the American Geophysical Union, December 6, 2005)