Nature & Environment
Changing Antarctic Winds Contribute to Rising Global Sea Levels
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jul 07, 2014 12:44 PM EDT
Changing winds around the Antarctic may be contributing to rising global sea levels. Researchers from Australian National University and the University of New South Wales originally linked these winds to southern Australia's drying climate. However, they now believe that it may also be contributing to rising ocean temperatures.
"When we included projected Antarctic wind shifts in a detailed global ocean model, we found water up to 4°C warmer than current temperatures rose up to meet the base of the Antarctic ice shelves," said lead author Dr Paul Spence from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS), in a news release. "The sub-surface warming revealed in this research is on average twice as large as previously estimated with almost all of coastal Antarctica affected. This relatively warm water provides a huge reservoir of melt potential right near the grounding lines of ice shelves around Antarctica. It could lead to a massive increase in the rate of ice sheet melt, with direct consequences for global sea level rise."
Previous studies have primarily focused on rising sea levels and the rate of ice shelf melting from general warming of the ocean over large areas. This time around, researchers worked to examine the impacts of changing winds on currents down to 700m off the coastline with help of super computers at Australia's National Computational Infastructure (NCI) Facility.
With this more detailed examination, they found that changes in the Antarctic coastal winds from climate change could be linked more closely to melting of the ice shelves than broader warming of the ocean. Furthermore, researchers said the findings may help explain a number of sudden and unexplained increases in global sea levels.
"It is very plausible that the mechanism revealed by this research will push parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet beyond a point of no return," said Dr Axel Timmerman, Prof of Oceanography at University of Hawaii and an IPCC lead author who has seen the paper.
"This work suggests the Antarctic ice sheets may be less stable to future climate change than previously assumed."
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Jul 07, 2014 12:44 PM EDT
Changing winds around the Antarctic may be contributing to rising global sea levels. Researchers from Australian National University and the University of New South Wales originally linked these winds to southern Australia's drying climate. However, they now believe that it may also be contributing to rising ocean temperatures.
"When we included projected Antarctic wind shifts in a detailed global ocean model, we found water up to 4°C warmer than current temperatures rose up to meet the base of the Antarctic ice shelves," said lead author Dr Paul Spence from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS), in a news release. "The sub-surface warming revealed in this research is on average twice as large as previously estimated with almost all of coastal Antarctica affected. This relatively warm water provides a huge reservoir of melt potential right near the grounding lines of ice shelves around Antarctica. It could lead to a massive increase in the rate of ice sheet melt, with direct consequences for global sea level rise."
Previous studies have primarily focused on rising sea levels and the rate of ice shelf melting from general warming of the ocean over large areas. This time around, researchers worked to examine the impacts of changing winds on currents down to 700m off the coastline with help of super computers at Australia's National Computational Infastructure (NCI) Facility.
With this more detailed examination, they found that changes in the Antarctic coastal winds from climate change could be linked more closely to melting of the ice shelves than broader warming of the ocean. Furthermore, researchers said the findings may help explain a number of sudden and unexplained increases in global sea levels.
"It is very plausible that the mechanism revealed by this research will push parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet beyond a point of no return," said Dr Axel Timmerman, Prof of Oceanography at University of Hawaii and an IPCC lead author who has seen the paper.
"This work suggests the Antarctic ice sheets may be less stable to future climate change than previously assumed."
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone