May 4. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Atmospheric rivers (long, concentrated streams of moisture in the sky) are being a key factor in the complex conditions that accelerate the melting of glaciers in northern Greenlandaccording to new research.
Led by Kyle Mattingly, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Space Sciences and Engineering, the new study of moisture rivers over Greenland was published in Nature Communications.
Sometimes stretching for thousands of kilometers, atmospheric rivers carry moisture from the tropics to other parts of the world. They are a necessary part of the global climate cycle and can bring much-needed rainfall to drought-stricken areas. But they can also contribute to dangerous flooding.
“The Greenland ice sheet has seen an acceleration in glacier melt over the last 30 years,” Mattingly says. it’s a statement. “Our research shows the main impacts that atmospheric rivers can have on the northeastern part of the ice sheet.”
Greenland is covered in an ice sheet 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) thick that contains enough water to raise sea levels by 7 meters, or 23 feet. For millennia, it has played an important role in regulating the Earth’s temperature and climate, but that stability is at risk due to climate change.
Warming conditions begin with atmospheric rivers forming on the northwestern side of Greenland moving eastward, creating what are known as Foehn winds. Winds commonly occur when moist air meets an elevation change such as a mountain or the steep Greenland coastline. As that moist air rises, it condenses and can precipitate out as rain or snow, releasing heat into the atmosphere. Now warmer and drier, the air continues to flow over the ice cap and back to the northeast side of Greenland.
According to Mattingly, these warming conditions are amplified over the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream, a fast-moving area of ice that extends inland and drains a large portion of the ice sheet into the ocean. Increased warm air conditions from atmospheric rivers result in meltwater pools and rivers that absorb more sunlight than the nearby glacier.
“The amount of moisture transported within atmospheric rivers is projected to increase under warming climate scenarios“, says Mattingly. “This may increase the impacts of the melt in northeast Greenland if atmospheric circulation patterns continue to favor the flow of atmospheric rivers into northwest Greenland.”
