Bad news for sea-level rises as quickening Antarctic winds point to faster ice melt
Last edited Mon Jul 7, 2014, 05:36 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Bad news for sea-level rises as quickening Antarctic winds point to faster ice melt
July 7, 2014 - 6:18PM
Peter Hannam
ENVIRONMENT EDITOR, THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Sea levels may rise much faster than predicted because climate models have failed to account for the disruptive effects of stronger westerly winds, Australian-led research has found.
Recent studies of Antarctica have suggested the giant glaciers of West Antarctica may have begun an irreversible melting that will raise sea levels by as much as 3 metres over 200-500 years.
That estimate, though, may prove optimistic because models had failed to account for how strengthening westerly winds in the Southern Ocean would start to impinge coastal easterlies, upsetting a delicate balance of warm and cold waters close to the Antarctic ice sheets, said Paul Spence, an oceanographer at the University of NSW’s Climate Change Research Centre.
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The research, published in Geophysical Research Letters, found that the coastal temperature structure was more sensitive to global warming, particularly the changes to winds, than previously identified.
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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/bad-news-for-sealevel-rises-as-quickening-antarctic-winds-point-to-faster-ice-melt-20140707-zsz3o.html
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