According to a paper published in the journal- Nature Geoscience, Paul Holland, the lead author of the report stated that snowfall in Antarctica has increased slowly, thus making the November temperature in Antarctica icy cold. It was observed that till October snowfall in Antarctica the levels of snow in the Arctic Sea surrounding Antarctica, reached its annual winter-maximum and set a record high. Snowfall in Antarctica extended over 19.44 million square kilometers (7.51 million square miles) in 2012, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The previous record of 19.39 million kilometers (7.49 million square miles) was set in 2006. Thus proving that the October snowfall in Antarctica has increased at an average of 0.9% per decade. Scientists noted that the strong pattern of decreasing ice coverage in the Amundsen Seas region and increasing ice coverage in the Ross Sea region is suggestive of changes in atmospheric circulation. The year 2012 continues a long-term contrast between the two hemispheres, with decreasing sea ice coverage in the Arctic and increasing sea ice coverage in the Antarctic, they added.
Researchers explain an expansion of winter ice could be due to the wind condition in Antarctica or the snowfall in Antarctica, whereas the Arctic summer sea ice decline is more closely linked to a decadal climate warming caused mainly by burning fossil fuels and clearing forests. Sea ice is an extensive layer of frozen ocean water that cools the polar zones - the Arctic in the northern hemisphere and Antarctica in the southern hemisphere. It therefore helps immensely in moderating the global climate. Climate change scientists claim that the growth in Antarctica offsets the retreat of sea ice in the Arctic, demonstrating that nature has a self-righting mechanism. They also question dire warnings from many climate scientists of a warmer world by the end of the century that will set the stage for a long period of catastrophic extreme weather and rising sea levels as the great land-based ice sheets start to melt, first Greenland in the Arctic, and then on a much larger scale in Antarctica. Wind conditions in Antarctica and ocean movements isolate Antarctica from the global weather patterns, keeping it very cold. By contrast, the Arctic Ocean is closely linked with the land climate systems around it, making it more sensitive to change, thus getting closer to the reason why this phenomenon of increased snowfall in Antarctica occurred. The worry is that if global warming continues on the track predicted by many climate scientists, Antarctica's sea ice and its vast land-based ice sheet will eventually follow. Research has shown that about 52 million years ago, when the concentration of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas was more than twice its current level, Antarctica had palm trees and other tropical vegetation and summer temperatures on the coast were between 20 to 27 degrees Celsius!
But the November temperature of Antarctica (-29.0⁰C to -34.0⁰C, average) will not be the same forever. And we know that the snowfall in Antarctica will not save us. Sea level is rising – that is a fact. Now we need to understand how quickly we have to adapt our coastal infrastructure; and that depends on how much CO2 we keep emitting into the atmosphere.
Photo by NASA.
