International Journal of Geosciences, 2013, 4, 959-977 http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ijg.2013.46089 Published Online August 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ijg) Past, Present and Future Climate of Antarctica Alvarinho J. Luis Earth System Science Organization, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Goa, India Email:
[email protected] Received May 27, 2013; revised June 29, 2013; accepted July 6, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Alvarinho J. Luis. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Anthropogenic warming of near-surface atmosphere in the last 50 years is dominant over the west Antarctic Peninsula. Ozone depletion has led to partly cooling of the stratosphere. The positive polarity of the Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM) index and its enhancement over the past 50 years have intensified the westerlies over the Southern Ocean, and induced warming of Antarctic Peninsula. Dictated by local ocean-atmosphere processes and remote forcing, the Antarctic sea ice extent is increasing, contrary to climate model predictions for the 21st century, and this increase has strong regional and seasonal signatures. Models incorporating doubling of present day CO2 predict warming of the Ant- arctic sea ice zone, a reduction in sea ice cover, and warming of the Antarctic Plateau, accompanied by increased snowfall. Keywords: Component Antarctic Climate; Discovery; Sea Ice; Glaciers; Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode; Antarctic Warming 1. Introduction with a repository of more than 70% of the Earth’s fresh- water in the form of ice sheet.