Sep 27, 2023 08:37 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 28, 2023 03:00 PM by C C.)
Flowers are spreading in Antarctica as summer temperatures soar
https://www.sciencealert.com/flowers-are...tures-soar
INTRO: Antarctica is looking less and less recognizable with each passing year. On land, scientists have found flowering plants, moss, and algae spreading like never before, and at sea, the extent of floating sea ice has hit record lows.
These dramatic changes have coincided with rising summer temperatures. In 2022, researchers at the University of Washington (UW) recorded the largest heatwave to ever hit Antarctica. In March, temperatures near the south pole reached 39 °C above normal for three days in a row, hitting a peak of -10 °C (14 °F).
This was the hottest temperature anomaly recorded anywhere in the world, Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, an atmospheric scientist and first author of a published paper by the UW team, told Kasha Patel at The Washington Post.
Some of his team who were working in Antarctica at the time were apparently warm enough to wear shorts and even go shirtless in the Sun. Moments like these make it clearer than ever that Antarctica is not immune to the climate crisis, as some scientists once thought... (MORE - details)
New Study Definitively Confirms Gulf Stream Weakening
https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-rel...weakening/
KEY POINTS: The Gulf Stream transport of water through the Florida Strait has slowed by 4% over the past four decades, with a 99% certainty that this weakening is more than expected from random chance, according to a new study.
This is the strongest, most definitive evidence we have of the weakening of this climatically-relevant ocean current,” said Chris Piecuch, a physical oceanographer with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who is lead author of this study.
The finding of definitive evidence of the weakening of the Gulf Stream transport of water is a testament to long-term ocean observing and the importance of sustaining long ocean records.
The study does not conclude whether the Gulf Stream weakening is due to climate change or to natural factors, stating that future studies should try to identify the cause of the weakening.
For the study, researchers applied Bayesian modeling to combine thousands of data points from three independent data sets to determine the transport of water through the Florida Straits since 1982. Bayesian modeling uses probability to represent uncertainty within a model. The Bayesian model solution provided clear evidence of significant long-term change. In addition, researchers found that omitting any one of the data sets from the analysis also indicated weakening. The paper states this demonstrates that transport weakening is a common signal that is not dependent on any one data set. (MORE - details)
https://www.sciencealert.com/flowers-are...tures-soar
INTRO: Antarctica is looking less and less recognizable with each passing year. On land, scientists have found flowering plants, moss, and algae spreading like never before, and at sea, the extent of floating sea ice has hit record lows.
These dramatic changes have coincided with rising summer temperatures. In 2022, researchers at the University of Washington (UW) recorded the largest heatwave to ever hit Antarctica. In March, temperatures near the south pole reached 39 °C above normal for three days in a row, hitting a peak of -10 °C (14 °F).
This was the hottest temperature anomaly recorded anywhere in the world, Edward Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, an atmospheric scientist and first author of a published paper by the UW team, told Kasha Patel at The Washington Post.
Some of his team who were working in Antarctica at the time were apparently warm enough to wear shorts and even go shirtless in the Sun. Moments like these make it clearer than ever that Antarctica is not immune to the climate crisis, as some scientists once thought... (MORE - details)
New Study Definitively Confirms Gulf Stream Weakening
https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-rel...weakening/
KEY POINTS: The Gulf Stream transport of water through the Florida Strait has slowed by 4% over the past four decades, with a 99% certainty that this weakening is more than expected from random chance, according to a new study.
This is the strongest, most definitive evidence we have of the weakening of this climatically-relevant ocean current,” said Chris Piecuch, a physical oceanographer with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who is lead author of this study.
The finding of definitive evidence of the weakening of the Gulf Stream transport of water is a testament to long-term ocean observing and the importance of sustaining long ocean records.
The study does not conclude whether the Gulf Stream weakening is due to climate change or to natural factors, stating that future studies should try to identify the cause of the weakening.
For the study, researchers applied Bayesian modeling to combine thousands of data points from three independent data sets to determine the transport of water through the Florida Straits since 1982. Bayesian modeling uses probability to represent uncertainty within a model. The Bayesian model solution provided clear evidence of significant long-term change. In addition, researchers found that omitting any one of the data sets from the analysis also indicated weakening. The paper states this demonstrates that transport weakening is a common signal that is not dependent on any one data set. (MORE - details)
