Saturday, August 12, 2006 - Bangor Daily News
New research by a team of international scientists, including several from the University of Maine, shows that rising global temperatures have not significantly changed weather patterns in the interior regions of Antarctica.
But researchers cautioned against interpreting the data as good news on climate change. Instead, they said the lack of additional snowfall over interior Antarctica - coupled with more alarming news on melting ice sheets in Greenland - could mean that global warming could have even more severe impacts than previously thought.
Sixteen researchers, including Paul Mayewski of UMaine's Climate Change Institute, used ice core samples and models to analyze annual snowfall in Antarctica during the past 50 years. Two UMaine graduate students, Daniel Dixon and Susan Kaspari, also worked on the study.
Contrary to popular perceptions of Antarctica as a snowy hell, much of the interior of the continent is considered a "polar desert" and therefore receives relatively little precipitation. The extreme cold merely keeps snow and ice from ever melting.
Climatologists and polar researchers have predicted that rising global temperatures caused by human-induced buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase moisture levels above Antarctica because warmer air holds more moisture.
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