Overview

• Long-term records from three unmanned stations show East Antarctica’s interior warmed by 0.45–0.72°C per decade from 1993 to 2022, outpacing global averages.
• Scientists link the inland warming to a Southern Indian Ocean–driven dipole pattern that draws warm air into the continent’s interior, while coastal stations show no significant trend.
• The Nature Communications team warns that current models miss this inland-warming pathway, suggesting projections of future ice loss may be too low.
• A separate Nature Geoscience study finds northward winds, not stronger west winds, consistently boost West Antarctic ice-shelf melt by closing polynyas and curbing ocean heat loss.
• Researchers indicate greenhouse-gas–related pressure changes could strengthen these north winds, sharpening calls to update models and expand Antarctic observations.