Antarctic climate variability during the past few centuries based on ice core records from coastal Dronning Maud Land and its implications on the Recent warming

Abstract

Analysis of the available instrumental records revealed that Antarctica has undergone complex and significant temperature changes during the recent decades, with a substantial warming in most parts of the West Antarctica and no such trends in East Antarctica. In order to evaluate the climate variability beyond the instrumental records at the coastal Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica), stable isotope proxy records of two ice core records were examined. The variations in the delta sup(18) O and delta D records in two cores correspond to changes in low and mid latitude climatic modes like the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The estimated surface air temperatures using the delta sup(18) O profiles of two ice cores revealed significant warming by 0.6-1 degrees C per century during the past five centuries. This study corroborates that the coastal Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica) have been experiencing significant warming during past centuries and trend is alarmingly increasing (approx. 0.4 degrees C per decade) in the recent decades.