The new report from researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute and the University of Bergen is yet another sign that climate change has reached Antarctica.
This is what oceanographer and one of the authors behind the report, Tore Hattermann, told Dagbladet.
Since 2009, he has investigated the melting under the Fimbulisen ice shelf, which floats on the sea in Dronning Maud Land. Hattermann says that most of the ice break’s losses occur on the underside, as it is very cold on the upper side.
In 2016, however, the researchers saw a marked change.
– Since then, warmer water has increasingly entered under the ice shelf, causing it to melt from the underside, he says.
– This has not happened before, and shows a change in East Antarctica, he adds.
RESEARCHER: Tore Hattermann has done research on the Fimbulisen ice shelf in Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica. Photo: Norwegian Polar Institute Show more
Possible causes
The report with the new findings was published in it on Thursday international journal Nature Geoscience. NRK have mentioned this.
“Since 2016, we have observed sustained warming, with inflowing warm deep water temperatures reaching above 0 °C,” the study says.
Hattermann tells Dagbladet that in this report they have also looked at what could be the reasons why the change has taken place.
– In 2016, we saw that the extent of sea ice also began to decline. In addition, we have seen that winds have become stronger and pulled more towards the continent, which means that the warm water gets more access, explains Hattermann.
Sounding the alarm in Antarctica
Temperatures
From June to August this year, the amount of sea ice in Antarctica was lower than the lowest previously recorded, according to figures published by the EU’s climate monitoring service earlier in September.
The situation here and in the world’s oceans has alarmed scientistswhich asks whether climate change is accelerating.
At the same time, some extremely high temperatures have been recorded on the normally frozen continent. A new heat record of 18.6 degrees at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula was set in 2020.
In March last year, the temperature was 38.5 degrees higher than normal deep in the inland ice in East Antarctica. This is the largest temperature deviation from normal that has ever been recorded on the globe, writes NTB.
2023-09-23 00:11:07
#ice #melts #bottom
