Under the Antarctic glacial cap, the thick ice platform that covers 98% of Antarctica, is most of the planet’s freshwater reserves. The increase in global temperature is causing the dissolution of the western part, whose mass is constantly decreasing since the 1940s.
For years, scholars have blamed this “accelerated melting” to the warm winds that blow from the west: a study published on Nature Geoscience He questioned this belief, claiming that the managers of the reduction of the glacial cap of western Antarctica are instead the northern winds. “We thought of collecting data in support of the climatic models used so far, which claimed that the western winds were strengthened near the Antarctic coast”, explains Gemma O’Connor, coordinator of the research: “On the contrary, we did not find any test in support of this thesis”.
Climatic models. Scholars used climatic models to simulate the dissolution of the western part of the Antarctic Calotta and identify which factors influenced it. The data collected by thirty different simulations showed that the north winds significantly exacerbated the loss of ice, while the western ones did not have the same effect.
The role of polynias. The polynias would play a crucial role, small holes in the ice that act as “pores” making excess heat out. The winds of the North, which in Antarctica blows strongly, would make the sea ice move by closing these holes and reducing heat loss: in this way the ocean water would be warmer, and the ice under the surface of the cap would dissolve more quickly.
Once again our fault. The researchers believe that the fault of the strong north winds blowing in Antarctica is of greenhouse gas emissions. The climate change caused by man lower the atmospheric pressure on the sea of Amundsen, in the western area of the Antarctic Ocean, and this increases the speed of the northern winds. If it is therefore true that emissions favor the dissolution, reducing them could slow it down.
