More evidence of Antarctica warming

SEATTLE, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've found more evidence Antarctica has been getting warmer for 150 years.

Despite recent indications Antarctica cooled considerably during the 1990s, the study suggests the world's iciest continent is becoming warmer -- a trend not identifiable in short-term meteorological records and masked at the end of the 20th century by large temperature variations, said David Schneider, a University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in Earth and space sciences.

Schneider said numerous ice cores collected from five areas have allowed scientists to reconstruct a temperature record that shows average Antarctic temperatures have risen about 0.2 degree Celsius, or about a third of a degree Fahrenheit, during 150 years.

That, he noted, might not sound like much, but the overall increase includes a recorded temperature decline of nearly 1 degree during the 1990s.

"Even if you account for the cooling in the '90s, we still see that 0.2 degree increase from the middle of the 1800s to the end of the 20th century," said Schneider, the lead author of a paper detailing the work published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.