Climate analysis makes sense of Antarctic puzzle

Researchers caution that global warming signals are being masked by random weather variations and report that the human influence on snowfall levels will become detectable within the next few decades.

In a warmer world, scientists expect to see an increase in snowfall over the Antarctic because of higher levels of moisture in the air. This is expressed in global and regional climate models as an increase in surface mass balance (SMB) -- a term that incorporates the loss of mass in the Antarctic ice sheet through sublimation and the gain in mass due to snowfall.

Their conclusions are based on the analysis of 35 different climate models, which allow the researchers to quantify i) the human influence on Antarctic SMB and ii) the natural variability of SMB that arises from random, chaotic variations in the weather.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160824212216.htm