Scientists have discovered an alarming transformation taking place around Antarctica which has lost ice equal to the size of Greenland, raising fears of climate change impact on the world.
The newest findings reveal that that Southern Ocean is getting saltier, and sea ice is melting at record speed, reversing a decades-long trend in change that is letting hidden heat rise to the surface and melt the ice from below.
According to a report, one of the most dramatic signs is the return of a giant hole in the ice that hadn’t been seen in half a century.
The consequences could be global in the form of stronger storms, warmer oceans, and serious trouble for penguins and other polar wildlife.
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/divided-world-procrastinates-climate-change-waits-none/
Researchers at the University of Southampton reported a dramatic shift in the Southern Ocean, with surface water salinity rising and sea ice in steep decline, Science Daily reported.
Since 2015, Antarctica has lost sea ice equal to the size of Greenland — considered to be largest environmental shift seen anywhere on Earth in the last decades.
Previously, the ocean’s surface freshened for decades, meaning it became less salty, a change that spurred ice growth.
Now, scientists say that trend has sharply reversed.
Using European satellite data, research led by the University of Southampton has discovered a sudden rise in surface salinity south of 50° latitude.
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/climate-change-many-alarm-bells/
According to the report, this has coincided with a dramatic loss of sea ice around Antarctica and the re-emergence of the Maud Rise polynya in the Weddell Sea – a huge hole in the sea ice nearly four times the size of Wales, which hadn’t occurred since the 1970s.
Commenting on the report published on June 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr Alessandro Silvano from the University of Southampton who led the research said:
“Saltier surface water allows deep ocean heat to rise more easily, melting sea ice from below. It’s a dangerous feedback loop: less ice leads to more heat, which leads to even less ice.
“The return of the Maud Rise polynya signals just how unusual the current conditions are. If this salty, low-ice state continues, it could permanently reshape the Southern Ocean — and with it, the planet.
In these polar waters, the report said, cold, fresh surface water overlays warmer, saltier waters from the deep.
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/climate-change-weather-warmer-1-5c-before-2025/
In the winter, as the surface cools and sea ice forms, the density difference (stratification) between water layers weakens, allowing these layers to mix and heat to be transported upward, melting the sea ice from below and limiting its growth.
Since the early 1980s, the surface of the Southern Ocean had been freshening,
However, w satellite technology, combined with information from floating robotic devices which travel up and down the water column, shows this trend has reversed; surface salinity is increasing, stratification is weakening, and sea ice has reached multiple record lows — with large openings of open ocean in the sea ice (polynyas) returning.
This marks the first time that climatologists have been able to monitor these changes in the Southern Ocean in real-time.
Contrary to new findings, man-made climate change was generally expected to sustain Antarctic Sea ice cover over the coming years.
Aditya Narayanan, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Southampton and co-author on the paper, explains: “While scientists expected that human-driven climate change would eventually lead to Antarctic Sea ice decline, the timing and nature of this shift remained uncertain.
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Muhammad Luqman is Associate Editor at Views News Now. He writes on wide-ranging issues including economy, South Asia, the Middle East, agriculture, economy and innovation. Luqman has worked some of the leading news organizations and won acclaim for his original and research-based works.
