Detection and attribution of Antarctic climate change

The current understanding of climate changes that have occurred in the last 50 years over Antarctica is presented with a focus on: (i) a summer warming of the eastern Antarctic Peninsula, which caused the collapse of the larsen B ice shelf, (ii) the observed significant increase of total sea ice extent and (iii) an anthropogenic ‘fingerprint’ in the Antarctic-wide temperature change pattern. The implications of this for predictions of the future are discussed.

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