Climate change in the polar regions2011

"The polar regions have experienced some remarkable environmental changes in recent decades, such as the Antarctic ozone hole, the loss of large amounts of sea ice from the Arctic Ocean and major warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. The polar regions are also predicted to warm more than any other region on Earth over the next century if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise. Yet trying to separate natural climate variability from anthropogenic factors still presents many problems. This book presents a thorough review of how the polar climates have changed over the last million years and sets recent changes within a long term perspective. The approach taken is highly cross-disciplinary and the close links between the atmosphere, ocean and ice at high latitudes are stressed. The volume will be invaluable for researchers and advanced students in polar science, climatology, global change, meteorology, oceanography and glaciology"-- "This book seeks to assess the climatic and environmental changes that have taken place over the last century and set these in the context of our understanding of natural climate variability in the pre-industrial period. We will draw on many of the new climate data sets that have become available in recent years and also make use of the results of modelling experiments. The last few years have seen great advances in our ability to observe, monitor and model the present and past polar climates. In particular, the International Polar Year of 2007-2008 gave us an unprecedented amount of data from the two polar regions and increased our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for climate variability and change at high latitudes"--