NASA warns of global warming in Antarctica – science – life

Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Container(JPL for its English acronym) warn of Loss of ice shelves in Antarctica.

In studies recently published in journals such as temper nature s Earth System Sciences Data and scientists suggest that these losses will mean the rate of global sea level rise.

Also read: (The Arctic has warmed almost four times faster than the rest of the planet)

The ice pads They are outcrops of the Antarctic ice sheet, each several hundred meters thick, found where ice juts out of the land and floats on the ocean. They act as a protective barrier against the continental ice, preventing the entire ice sheet from flowing into the ocean, which could raise global sea levels dramatically.

However, the warming of the atmosphere and oceans caused by climate change is increasing the rate at which these ice shelves are melting, compromising their ability to slow the flow of the ice sheet into the ocean.

Through satellite monitoring and comparison with existing records, researchers associated with NASA have determined that the situation is alarming.

In the study “Change in Antarctic Ice Sheet Height: 1985 to 2020”, led by JPL researcher Johan Nilsson, it was said that “the ice sheet gains about 2,000 cubic kilometers of ice each year due to precipitation and loses an amount comparable to the discharge of solid ice in surrounding oceans, many studies have shown that the ice cover Currently out of balance in the long run, Mass loss at an accelerating rate and increasing sea level rise.”

Along the same lines, the document was published in the prestigious magazine temper nature It shows that between 1997 and 2021, Antarctica experienced a net loss of 1.9 percent of ice shelf area, which may not fully recover before the next series of major natal events, likely to occur in the next decade.

In conclusion, both investigations suggest that further retreat could lead to an increasingly large sea level rise in the future.

Spreading Concern Among Researchers

A new model developed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the US suggests that Antarctica’s ice shelves could melt at an accelerating rate, contributing to a faster sea level rise, according to Science Advances.

The model takes into account the often-overlooked narrow ocean current along the Antarctic coast and simulates how fast-flowing fresh water, melting from ice shelves, can trap warm, dense ocean waters at the ice base, warming and melting it even more.

“If this mechanism we’re studying is active in the real world, it could mean that ice shelf melt rates are 20 to 40 percent higher than projected by global climate models, which typically can’t simulate these strong currents near the Antarctic coast,” he said. Thomson says.

* With information from EUROPE PRESS

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