(ORDO NEWS) — Global warming raises the temperature at the South Pole three times faster than on the rest of the Earth, scientists have come to this conclusion in recent studies, which has caused considerable concern in the scientific community.
The South Pole is located in the coldest region on Earth: the Antarctic Plateau. The average temperature there ranges from -60C (-76F) in winter to -20C (-4F) in summer.
The temperature of Antarctica can vary widely, but until now it was believed that the South Pole could keep cool even when the continent heats up.
However, recent studies show that extreme and dramatic climate changes are inherent in Antarctica.
An international team of researchers analyzed weather station data for 60 years and used computer modeling to show what caused accelerated warming.
They found that higher ocean temperatures in the western Pacific Ocean for decades reduced atmospheric pressure over the Weddell Sea in the southern Atlantic Ocean. This, in turn, increased the flow of warm air directly over the South Pole, heating it by more than 1.83 ° C (3.3 ° F) since 1989.
The authors of the study say that the trend towards natural warming was probably caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. In addition, this may be a masking effect of carbon pollution at the South Pole. That’s what reported
Dr. Kyle Clem, a researcher at the University of Victoria at Wellington and lead author of the study:
“Although the temperatures in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula warmed up in the 20th century, the South Pole is cooling. It was assumed that this part of Antarctica … could be immune / insulated from warming. However, we have found that this is far from the case. ”
The data showed that the most distant place on Earth is currently heating at a rate of approximately 0.6C (1.1F) for a decade. This compares with an increase of about 0.2C (1.4F) for the rest of the planet.
The authors of the study associate this change with a phenomenon known as pacific inter-cavity oscillation (IPO). The IPO cycle lasts from about 15 to 30 years and alternates with a “positive” state in which the tropical Pacific is hotter and the northern Pacific is colder than average.
In the “negative” state, on the contrary, the temperature anomaly changes to the opposite. At the beginning of the century, IPO switched to a negative cycle. This led to increased convection and increased extreme pressures at high latitudes, which led to a strong flow of warm air directly above the South Pole.
Dr. Clem added that a warming level of 1.83C (3.3F) exceeded 99.99 percent of all modeled 30-year warming trends.
“Despite the fact that warming was only within the natural variability of climate models, it is very likely that human activity contributed to this. Our research shows that extreme and dramatic climate changes are standard for climate in this area. ”
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