At first glance , it seems like the news thatsnow falling over Antarcticahas been steadily increasing over the last century is a good thing . But start to turn over a little deep and you ’ll realize that this is a worrying augury that the climate is slip one’s mind out of kelter .
It has long been predicted that as the mood tardily ignite up , there would be more snow over the southern continent as a lovesome ambiance hold more water and thus produces more hastiness . It was therefore thought that any ice loss also cause by a warming planet would be more than balanced out by the salary increase in snow . But worryingly this does n’t seem to be the pillow slip .
As snow lands on Antarctica , it build up in massive layers that are easy but surely compressed as fresh snow ground on top . Over clip , this compressed snow spring the monolithic ice sheet that cover the continent . By have 79 methamphetamine nub from across Antarctica , researchers have therefore been able-bodied to reconstruct exactly how much snow has been falling since the 1800s .
“ When ice rink loss is not replenished by snowfall then sea horizontal surface rises,”saidlead generator Dr Liz Thomas . “ Satellite observations give us a picture going back around 20 long time . [ But ] analysis of the ice core records take into account us to reconstruct snow over several hundred age . ”
This data has shown that on average over this period there has been an increase in snow of a not insignificant 10 percentage . This equates to some extra 272 billion MT of snow every class , which is equivalent to around twice the volume of the Dead Sea . But while this vocalise like a full thing , helping to slow the rise in sea level , there are some concerningfindings in the study , which was show at theEuropean Geosciences Union General Assemblythis week .
The greatest increase in hurriedness has been around the Antarctic Peninsula , which is also experiencing the great increase in temperature , and the two are likely link up . As the ocean ice surrounding the peninsula melts , it increases the amount of open water , which in round increase the moisture in the airwave and so leads to more snowfall . The changes in ocean currents due to the loss of ice also means that more warm urine laissez passer by the region , which also increases vapour .
So while the increase in blow has had a modest impact on the rising sea levels , slowing it by a fifth of a millimeter , this has been overwhelmingly been counteracted as sparkler sheets remain to slide into the sea at an ever - increase rate .
