![]() They are projected to continue to lose mass Less ice, higher sea levelĪccording to the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change ( IPCC), both major ice sheets – Greenland and Antarctica – have been losing mass since at least 1990, with the highest loss rate during 2010–2019. It adds that while not everything that happens in nature is due to global warming alone, the collapse of the Conger ice shelf, among others, is the continuation of a “worrying trend”. And as more and more ice shelves around Antarctica collapse, ice loss will increase, and with it global sea levels”, a scientific article cited by the agency warns. And what happens in Antarctica does not stay in Antarctica…Global warming is making events like this more likely. “As glaciologists, we see the impact of global warming on Antarctica in increasing ice loss with time. WMO explains that it is too soon to say what triggered the collapse, but that it appears unlikely to have been caused by melting at the surface level.īut although is relatively small in size, and unlikely to have any global significance, the collapse of the ice shelf is ‘ another warning sign’. Its collapse was caught on satellite and made headlines across the world. Just ahead of the heatwave, East Antarctica’s Conger ice shelf – a floating platform the size of Rome or New York City – broke off the continent on March 15, 2022. Image Sentinel2 □️ /bmfFjrRJZ2- World Meteorological Organization April 1, 2022 Record high temperatures, rain and the collapse of an ice shelf in East #Antarctica have prompted concern about the role of #climatechange in the coldest and driest part of the world. ![]() Remote East Antarctica, by contrast, has until now been less impacted. The Antarctic Peninsula (the northwest tip near to South America) is among the fastest warming regions of the planet, almost 3☌ over the last 50 years. The events happened just after Antarctic Sea ice reached its minimum extent after the summer melt, and fell below two million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) for the first time, since satellite records began in 1979. Is this simply a freakishly improbable event, or is it a sign of more to come? Right now, no one knows,” tweeted Dr Robert Rohde, Lead Scientist at Berkeley Earth. ![]() “This event is rewriting record books and our expectations about what is possible in Antarctica. Scientists say it is still too soon to say definitively whether climate change is the cause. The experts added that while the warm temperature at Dome Concordia (Dome C) is a source of excitement for climatologists, “rains at the coast in March is a source of concern for everyone”.Īccording to WMO, the warmth and moisture were driven primarily by what’s known as an atmospheric river – a narrow band of moisture collected from warm oceans. “Fortunately, there are no longer penguin chicks at this time of the year but the fact that this happens now in March is a reminder of what is at stake in the peripheral regions: wildlife, stability of the ice sheet”, French scientists Etienne Vignon and Christoph Genthon told the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO).Ī Tabular Iceberg in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. ![]() “Rainfall is rare in Antarctica but when it occurs, it has consequences on ecosystems - particularly on penguin colonies - and on the ice sheet mass balance. Just a day before, weather stations had recorded rain on the coastal area further upstream, and even temperatures way above 0☌. The Russian station Vostok, in the middle of the Antarctic ice plateau, hit a provisional high of -17.7℃ (0.14☏), smashing the previous record of -32.6℃ (-26.68☏), while Dome Concordia, an Italian-French research station on top of the Antarctic plateau, 3,233 meters above sea level, experienced its highest ever temperature for any month. During the third week of March, research stations in East Antarctica recorded unprecedented temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius above the month’s average.
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