The Reason Antarctica is Melting: Shifting Winds, Driven by Global Warming

By: Jonathan Wiggins

Scientists had suspected that man-made climate change was likely causing the area of West Antarctica’s ice to thin, they had not established a direct connection or mechanism. It can be a very big issue because West Antarctica is where the majority of the continents ice loss is occuring. A team of researchers in the UK found that global warming has caused a shift in wind patterns that are ultimately bringing more warm ocean water into contact with the regions ice.

The reason climate change is causing this shift is due to the fundamental way wind works on the Earth and responds to warming. The Earth's surface is warming unevenly, which influences where areas of high and low pressure are situated in the atmosphere overhead. Because winds flow between those highs and lows, warming affects the broad patterns of wind across the globe. In West Antarctica, warming is shifting a key band of winds southward and making it stronger, which ultimately causes the winds over the Amundsen Sea to blow east. 

Scientists say that the study provides critical insights into what is going on in Antarctica and what could continue to happen as the planet warms. The study authors also looked at how Antarctica's wind patterns would respond if humans are able to reduce the production of greenhouse gases, or if they do not do so. 

If humans rein in their emissions so that they start falling by 2050 and ultimately stabilize at half of the current rate, wind patterns could be kept in their current state.