LETTERS Attribution of polar warming to human influence
The polar regions have long been expected to warm strongly as a result of anthropogenic climate change, because of the positive feedbacks associated with melting ice and snow1,2. Several studies have noted a rise in Arctic temperatures over recent decades2–4, but have not formally attributed the cha...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2008
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.409.1781 http://www.image.ucar.edu/idag/Papers/gillett_stone_polar_warming.pdf |
| Summary: | The polar regions have long been expected to warm strongly as a result of anthropogenic climate change, because of the positive feedbacks associated with melting ice and snow1,2. Several studies have noted a rise in Arctic temperatures over recent decades2–4, but have not formally attributed the changes to human influence, owing to sparse observations and large natural variability5,6. Both warming and cooling trends have been observed in Antarctica7, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report concludes is the only continent where anthropogenic temperature changes have not been detected so far, possibly as a result of insufficient observational coverage8. Here we use an up-to-date gridded data set of land surface temperatures9,10 and simulations from four coupled climate models to assess the causes of the observed polar temperature changes. We find that the observed changes in Arctic and |
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