Stanford researchers found increased meltwater and rain explain 60% of a decades-long mismatch between predicted and observed temperatures in the ocean around Antarctica.
Stanford researchers found increased meltwater and rain explain 60% of a decades-long mismatch between predicted and observed temperatures in the ocean around Antarctica.
Global climate models predict that the ocean around Antarctica should be warming, but in reality, those waters have cooled over most of the past four decades.
The discrepancy between model results and observed cooling, Stanford University scientists have now found, comes down mainly to missing meltwater and underestimated rainfall.
“We found that the Southern Ocean cooling trend is actually a response to global warming, which accelerates ice sheet melting and local precipitation,” said Earle Wilson, an assistant professor of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and senior author of the March 27 study in Geophysical Research Letters.
Read more at Stanford University
Photo Credit: MartinFuchs via Pixabay
