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August 16 (UPI) – According to a new study, man-made climate change has caused wind changes in Antarctica, resulting in an accelerated melting on the west coast of the continent.
The research – published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience – is the first to establish a direct link between human-induced global warming and the rapid melting of West Antarctic glaciers.
Scientists have already shown that inshore hot water inflows cause ice loss on the largest glaciers in West Antarctica. Previous research has also shown that variable wind regimes dictate the movement of hot and cold water masses.
For the last study, scientists used satellite observations and climate model simulations to analyze the change in wind patterns since 1920. The data showed that wind patterns have changed with climate warming. which resulted in warmer ocean conditions.
"The impact of climate change of anthropogenic origin on the ice cap of West Antarctic is not simple.It is the first evidence of a link direct between human activities and the loss of ice from the West Antarctic, "said Paul Holland, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey. , said in a press release. "Our findings imply that a combination of human activities and natural climatic variations has caused ice loss in this region, accounting for about 4.5 centimeters of sea level rise per century. "
When researchers developed models to simulate future wind patterns in the region, they found that climate change would continue to trigger wind patterns that favor warm ocean conditions.
"An important finding is that, if greenhouse gas emissions remain high in the future, the winds will continue to change and the melting of the ice may increase further," said Mr. Holland. "However, if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, the winds will not change much from current conditions, which shows that reducing greenhouse gas emissions now could reduce the future contribution of sea level. from this region. "
Scientists knew that the West Antarctic ice cap was influenced by ten-year climate cycles, but until now they could not understand why glacier ice caps had begun to melt so rapidly in recent decades. The latest research has provided answers.
"These results solve a long-standing puzzle – we have known for some time that variable winds near the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet contributed to the loss of ice, but we do not know why the Ice cap is changing, "said study Eric Steig, a climatologist at the University of Washington. "Our work on ice cores drilled in the Antarctic Ice Sheet has shown, for example, that wind conditions were similar in the past, but the ice core data also suggest a long-term trend of the winds. new work corroborates this evidence and further explains why this trend has occurred. "
Recent studies suggest that global governments must act quickly to avoid a significant rise in sea level. Even if global warming were to stop, instabilities in West Antarctic could continue to cause accelerated melting for a century. or more.
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