Based on the 25-year record of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a team of scientists led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) found that changes in snowfall in Antarctica could have significant short-term effects on global sea level rise. showed that there is
Earth’s climate is very complex, and Antarctica is one of the great engines that regulates how the climate changes over millennia. One reason for this is the enormous ice caps that lie miles deep on the frozen continent. This vast reservoir has a significant impact on sea levels around the world, so it is important to understand the dynamics of how ice forms and breaks off into the ocean as icebergs.
According to the latest computer models, the most important factors in the impact of Antarctic ice on sea levels are currents and temperature, which determine long-term sea-level rise, but there are also short-term factors. In this case, snowfall.
By examining snow rates in the Amundsen Sea Bay in West Antarctica, the BAS team found that changes in snowfall could have large short-term effects on the mass balance of the region, even if they are small compared to much larger long-term effects. I have determined that there is at sea level.
It’s essentially a question of how much snow falls over a period of time. As ice falls into the ocean, more water is added, causing sea levels to rise. Less snowfall would lead to a net loss of Antarctic ice and greater sea level rise. However, when snowfall is heavy, ice masses form faster than icebergs, resulting in a net excess of ice and slowing sea level rise.
In the case of Amundsen Sea Bay, about 3,331 gigatonnes of ice have been lost since 1996 (enough to bury London to a depth of 2 km (1.24 miles)). It should be noted that this change is inconsistent. Based on a model of data collected between 1996 and 2021, a snowy drought occurred from 2009 to 2013, during which the region contributed 25% more sea level rise than normal. In contrast, heavy snowfall in 2019-20 raised sea levels in the region to half their normal levels.
Earth observation researcher at the University of Leeds and Research. “These are likely to control the overall sea level effects from West Antarctica and should be investigated further.
“However, we were really surprised to see how much a period of extremely low or high snowfall would affect the ice sheet over two to five years. We suspect it may play a secondary but important role: the rate of West Antarctic ice loss.”
This research Nature Communications.
Source: British Antarctic Survey
