First long-term study on the East Antarctic interior ice sheet region reveals the Indian Ocean mechanism driving this change.
First long-term study on the East Antarctic interior ice sheet region reveals the Indian Ocean mechanism driving this change.
Scientists have confirmed that East Antarctica's interior is warming faster than its coastal areas and identified the cause. A 30-year study, published in Nature Communications and led by Nagoya University’s Naoyuki Kurita, has traced this warming to increased warm air flow triggered by temperature changes in the Southern Indian Ocean. Previously considered an observation "blind spot," East Antarctica contains most of the world’s glacial ice. This newly identified warming mechanism indicates that current predictions may underestimate the rate of future Antarctic ice loss.
Antarctica, the world’s coldest, driest, and windiest continent, contains about 70% of Earth’s freshwater frozen in its massive ice sheets. Climate change in the region has been studied using data from manned stations located mostly in coastal areas. However, the Antarctic interior has only four manned stations, with long-term climate data available for just two: Amundsen-Scott Station (South Pole) and Vostok Station (East Antarctic Interior). Therefore, the actual state of climate change in the vast interior remained largely undocumented.
Read more at: Nagoya University
Relay Station, an unmanned weather station in the interior of East Antarctica. Unmanned stations are designed to survive Antarctic temperatures below -70°C and have revealed the main cause of warming in East Antarctica’s interior. (Photo Credit: Naoyuki Kurita, Nagoya University)
