Much is said about the effect that climate change has been having on our planet and its consequences on the more temperate zones.Despite all this, according to a new NASA study, Antarctica is gaining more ice than it is losing.
A team of NASA scientists examined the altitude of the ice sheet through satellite images and concluded that the increase is favorable. The methods used to reach this conclusion are worthy of recognition, but this finding generated conflicts between investigations of more than a decade.
Antarctica is thus the same size as the United States and Mexico combined, but the changes in ice level are not uniform. As a result, some places raise their ice level and others decrease.
Some scientists claim that melting ice is increasing on the Western Antarctic Peninsula. While in the eastern and lower parts of the continent the ice is increasing.As a result, scientists clarify that the net increase is greater than the loss in the rest of the Antarctic Region.
This net increase in ice means that Antarctica does not contribute to sea level rise, it could also be of great help to compensate for the loss of ice in Greenland and in various glaciers on the planet.
Researchers believe that increased snowfall, which started more than 10,000 years ago, may be the reason for the increase in ice in Antarctica. Over the years, the snow accumulated and compacted in large quantities, to finally form ice sheets.
From 1992 to 2001, snowfall increased by 101 billion metric tons of ice per year, but this number decreased to 74 billion from 2003 to 2008.
On the other hand, the researchers mentioned that the increase in the loss of ice in Western Antarctica and the peninsula decreases the gains and there would be large net losses in the next 20 years.
Today it is believed that the loss of ice in Antarctica contributes almost 8% to the rise in the level of the oceans. Finally, this level of increase is very noticeable in the tides of coastal cities.
If the results of this new study are correct, Antarctica does not contribute to the rise of the sea. This means that scientists underestimate the impact of other causes of rising levels, such as melting in Greenland and warming oceans.
The world’s largest iceberg broke
The fragment that came off several days ago is about 175 square kilometers and 19 kilometers long. For Professor Adrian Luckman this could be the beginning of the end of the A-68A ice mass that broke off the Antarctic continent in June 2017.Heading for the South Atlantic Ocean it is the world’s largest iceberg.
Currently the ice mass is moving to the north of the Antarctic peninsula and it is expected that having entered into rougher and warmer waters, the currents will carry them towards the Atlantic.
Adrian Luckman, professor at the University of Swansea (United Kingdom), who has been following the progress of the A-68A, that gigantic 5,100 square kilometer block that separated from the continent in July 2017, assures that he suspects that the final rupture is beginning, but emphasizes that “the later fragments are probably with us for years.”
According to Luckman there was never any indication that this corner was going to come off. “Not that I have seen it, I have been monitoring progress, but mainly it has been the wear of small pieces everywhere,”said the researcher, who recalled that when the A-68-A was released it had about 6,000 kilometers of surface and an average thickness of 190 meters approximately. In all aspects of life on Earth there must be a balance, so in the same way, neither the decrease nor the increase of ice in Antarctica, nor the thaw is convenient for humanity. Balance is key to preserving the global climate.
This article is just tragic. I don’t wish to be mean but seriously to write an article that is the opposite of what is happening paints your journalism in a bad light. Is East Antarctica increasing in ice? Yes! Is West Antarctica, especially the peninsula, losing ice? Yes. When you take them away from each other you find that Antarctica has a massive net loss of ice. It isn’t rocket science and a few minutes research would have told you that.
The article does not contradict what you are stating. It informs specific scientific data from NASA. Both our past articles (and future articles) on the matter allows readers to get a broad picture of Antarctica Ice loss. TCRN is totally commited to alerting about the seriousness of Global Warming and that all World Citizens join in to strive towards a Greener society and planet.
Sean McBride – you have made a comment based on what you “think”, no what is fact. This article merely reports the results of NASSA research so your opinion on the facts is irrelevant.
Your response is typical of the hysteria from people who have no understanding of science. When the facts don’t match your beliefs then you need to change your beliefs to be based on facts. When the facts dont support a narrative, that narrative is false.
Also from Nassa…….”East Antarctica is considerably larger than West Antarctica. The ice sheet covering East Antarctica is thick – nearly three miles (five kilometers) thick in some regions – and its surface is high and home to some of the coldest and driest condition on Earth.”
Latest research from NASSA shows that there is a 0.25C temperature in sections of West Antarctica that overlaps with around extensive geothermal activity. Localised ice loss on the northern most part of the continent also peppered with around 90 volcanoes would be a much better explanation than selective localised “global” warming
Your analysis is welcomed. But….no opinion was given by our part, just reporting a specific finding by NASA. The information added by you comes to enrich the knowledge our readers can obtain on this matter. Thank you for engaging, we are an open platform for intense, sincere and respectful debate.
Although not necessarily we consider that some of the wording used in your first paragraph contributes to a balanced positioning when other people come to a different discourse from yours….as old-timers say: “if I want to give strong adjectives about opinions, better be it about my own rather than other’s!