No longer is David Braaten constantly cocooned in his red super
parka. He left the insta-freeze winds of the Antarctic interior
in January. But as cold as the trip was for the University of
Kansas scientist, he recognizes what one discovery after the
next has demonstrated this year: Itís getting remarkably warm
down there, and itís heating up incredibly fast. ďWeíre trying
to find out whatís happening to the ice,Ē said Braaten, the
deputy director of the KU-based Center for Remote Sensing of Ice
Sheets. Even as the changing climate brings more moisture, and
ice, to Antarcticaís center, on its edges the frozen continent
is becoming less so. Melting skyscrapers of ice crash into the
ocean at ever-faster rates. Thatís raising sea levels,
disrupting ocean food chains and reducing the regionís ability
to moderate the planetís climate. Climate scientists once were
befuddled about why Antarctica seemed to be cooling while the
rest of the world got toastier. It turns out the bottom of the
world has been warming after