Research Adds to Understanding of Snowfall/Warming Connection in Antarctica
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — Three University of Maine climate change researchers are among the authors of a new report, developed in collaboration with researchers from Ohio State University, that expands the scientific record of Antarctic snowfall and demonstrates that there has been no statistically significant change over 50 years (Monaghan et. al.). Scientists believe that an accurate understanding of snowfall totals is important to getting a clear picture of changes that may be occurring in Antarctica’s dynamic climate.
“The extent to which warming is affecting the Southern Hemisphere is an important question in climate science,” says Prof. Paul Andrew Mayewski, director of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute and one of the report’s authors. “This finding adds to our collective knowledge on this subject, and it provides information that is consistent with other observations on the Antarctic climate in studies that date back to 1979. Most importantly, it gives us a baseline to aid in the future measurement of snowfall and climate change in general over Antarctica.”
The study is published in today’s edition of the journal Science (www.sciencemag.org). UMaine doctoral students Daniel Dixon and Susan Kaspari are also among the 16 scientists who collaborated on the project.
Previous research in this area had suffered from the unreliability of snowfall and climate records before the late 1970s, when satellite imagery became more readily available. Scientists now have better data at their disposal because of the International Transantarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE), an extensive multinational research program headed up by Mayewski. The ITASE work has provided new records, in the form of ice cores, long tubes of ice removed from various parts of the Antarctic ice sheet. Ice cores provide a year-to-year climate record, somewhat like the rings on a tree, literally frozen in time.
” A major portion of the data in this study come from ITASE records,” Mayewski says. “Antarctica’s climate is the most pristine in the world, and it offers unique opportunities for establishing an historical record of climate change.”
The new findings have significant implications for scientists studying Antarctica’s environment and its role in the worldwide climate. Today’s report provides clues about the important environmental equilibrium that scientists watch carefully.
“These results fit well within a model that predicts future changes in Antarctica,” Mayewski says. “Beginning in 1979, we began to record evidence of ice retreat in coastal Antarctic glaciers. More recently, notable warming and the collapse of floating ice areas have been noted in the Antarctic Peninsula in the north. Additional research also shows that marine air masses are traveling farther inland from the north, and that the high-level atmosphere is warming. At the same time, interior Antarctica, where we measured the snowfall for this study, remains largely unchanged. This all suggests that Antarctica may be setting up for significant climate change, and models suggest it could experience the greatest changes on the planet.”
Mayewski has been studying Antarctica’s climate extensively since his first visit there as a graduate student in 1968. His long and distinguished record recently earned him the first-ever Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). He is currently making preparations to return to Antarctica to conduct further research, beginning in November. This article adds to an impressive academic publication record, which includes several articles in Science and Nature, considered the most prestigious of scientific journals.
Mayewski and his colleagues plan to continue their research by comparing more ice core records and circulation models, which scientists use to predict the climate in the future, with the new 50-year snowfall record to see if they can improve those predictive models.