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Posted by: oceangyre Offline Posted: Monday, 9 September 2019 3:24:51 PM(UTC)
Originally Posted by: Slovenski Go to Quoted Post
Screenshot_20190906-091409.pngScreenshot_20190906-091450.png

Thanks for your post slovenski
I get quite dizzy with conflicting reports you here about the Antartic and Arctic ice melt .Confused
What are your thoughts on the articl you posted?

Found this article today which is recent . Increase in westerly winds melting western ice shelf by 2100

Did a bit of cut and paste below


"Global warming is driving a shift in regional winds around the edges of Antarctica, and that's speeding up the meltdown of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, new research shows.

Westerly winds that enable warmer ocean water to creep beneath the floating edge of the ice sheet have become more prevalent over the past 100 years, scientists found in a new study, published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience.

Paul Holland, a researcher with the British Antarctic Survey and lead author of the study, explained that the winds are changing because global warming is heating the tropics faster than Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean. Contrasts between temperatures over different parts of the Earth are the main driver of wind. In this case, the increasing temperature differential from the equator to Antarctica is strengthening the westerly winds that circle around the frozen continent.

The way the westerly winds push the surface water allows warmer water from below to reach under the ice shelves, accelerating ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
....
"Our results show that the winds are on average becoming more westerly in this region [West Antarctica], whether there is an El Niño or not. So when an El Niño does occur, its influence is on top of the already stronger westerlies. A moderate El Niño now may have just as strong an influence as a strong El Niño did 100 years ago. In the future, even a weak El Niño may be strong enough to cause melt-inducing conditions," he said.

...
West Antarctica is about as big as the contiguous western United States and covered with ice that's over a mile thick in places. Its melting is projected to contribute at least 2 to 8 inches of global sea level rise by 2100, Dutrieux said.

more from this research here.

Global Warming Is Changing the Winds Off Antarctica, Driving Ice Melt


https://insideclimatenew...-glaciers-global-warming



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