Scientists solve enigma of Antarctic ‘cooling’ – click for article.
Research ‘kills off’ climate sceptic argument by showing average temperature across the continent has risen over the last 50 years
In the remote and inaccessible West Antarctic region the new research, based on ground measurements and satellite data, show that the region has warmed rapidly, by 0.17C each decade since 1957. “We had no idea what was happening there,” said Professor Eric Steig, at the University of Washington, Seattle, and who led the research published in Nature.
This outweighs the cooling seen in East Antarctica, so that, overall, the continent has warmed by 0.12C each decade over the same period. This matches the warming of the southern hemisphere as a whole and removes the apparent contradiction.
ht reader jockdownsouth
the Air Vent 
Yep – remember it well:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7843186.stm
“Writing in the journal Nature, they say the trend is “difficult to explain” without the effect of rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. ”
Trust the BBC will give equal prominence to the new paper.
Nice as it is…
So, I know you are busy, but it would be even nicer to see a comparable image of the new results…
RR
Yea, Just saw the link over at Climate Audit. When you remove a brick, the whole structure starts to crumble.
I think everyone has been much too nice to Dr Steig. I can see no innocent explanation for his use of that particular PCA methodology to derive the graphic shown above from the base data he was working with. It is completely counterintuitive unless one has an overarching ideological commitment to the theory of CAGW. No wonder he thinks he is such a clever mathematician = to create a mass of supporting data for an idea that is quite simply wrong takes talent and perseverance.
Last I heard, it’s now so cold in the Antarctic they are trying to save the penguins from the cold.
I am a regular Pittcon exhibitor for the last 15 years. I have even had dinner with the big boss of Pittcon (where I told him not to go back to Chicago… sorry Jeff). If I get a chance, I will be sure to bring up this issue with the Pittcon managers.
Sorry, an add for Pittcon came up on my screen right under the post… I thought it was part of the post. Oh well, no more wine for me tonight.
So your new paper is a zombie sceptic argument come back to eat their brains?
Congratulations on surviving a truly robust peer review process.
Steve#6-
I went to my first Pittcon in ’93 in Chicago. I learned lots from the vendors/posters and had a blast at the parties and bars. Took an ACS short course and the professors graciously autographed their book, which is the bible of the field. At a bar later that night an NBA player autographed it for me as well. Then the bartendress, who got the NBA player to sign it, signed it as Charles Barkley! What’s wrong with Chicago?
Remember when…
Eric Steig recognized the Antarctic was cooling? Then he hooked up with Michael Mann.
“In short, we fully expect Antarctica to warm up in the future.”
Eric Steig-2004
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/12/03/lawrence-solomon-hockey-stick-coverup-a-sequel/
More fallout over the University of Virginia’s mysterious conduct concerning the infamous hockey stick graph, the UN icon that purported to show that temperatures were steady over the last thousand years before shooting up in the last century.
The University of Virginia, which employed Michael Mann, the graph’s creator, and which received government funding that financed research for the graph, has been fighting attempts by investigators to learn its exact role in the entire affair. One of its manoeuvres: falsely telling a state lawmaker who requested information under the Freedom of Information Act that it no longer had access to the documents he requested.
That falsehood came to light after state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli decided to use the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act to compel the university to turn over documents related to Mann’s work. The university now admits it had the documents it refused to earlier divulge, but is still resisting handing them over.
To encourage the university and others to obey the law, a state legislator is introducing two bills. The first, available here, would make public employees who violate public information laws subject to fines and firing. The second, soon to be introduced, would thwart future cover-ups by public officials by requiring that all documents created by any public official be categorized at the time of their creation as either subject to public information laws or exempt from them.
Re: David S @ #4
Boy the way Glenn Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade
Guys like us we had it made
Those were the days
Breaking News,
I wonder if Thomas Jefferson would approve?
Andrew
“by 0.17C each decade since 1957”
That’s curious wording. Using the KNMI climate explorer, the satellite data (UAH 1979-2010) for the WAIS region (90W-135W,70S-80S) shows a trend of diddly-squat +/- a gnat’s whisker . What’s your call on the most recent few decades warming in that region?
Ryan, Nic, Steve, Jeff –
Are Journal of Climate/AMS intending to do a press release on your work? My view is that they should and that it should be sent to all the major news organisations that covered the Steig paper. Given that much of the main public debate on climate is happening in a biased mainstream media I think it is important that advances, corrections and improvements on previous work are highlighted.
As far as content goes I think Geoff Sherrington’s graphic at 42 on “Doing it Ourselves” gives a very powerful representation of the issues for the non mathematically inclined and NicL’s comment at 172 gives good context on the Antarctic ice sheets.
Elsewhere I saw publication date is scheduled for 7 December so, with a small effort, a timely press release should be possible.
http://www.ametsoc.org/amsnews/newsreleases.html
Andrew,
No! He’s rolling in his grave as we speak.
Eric has suggested that he was misquoted in this Guardian article, but concedes that the crux of the Guardian article – that a skeptic argument was “killed off” by his paper – is wrong. Probably. But it’s nothing new. See my comment #31 and his reply.
…. oops, at Eric’s Realclimate piece: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/12/a-brief-history-of-knowledge-about-antarctic-temperatures/