The atmosphere above Antarctica heats up much slower than over the Arctic.
An international team of climate scientists found the reason due to which the atmosphere over Antarctica heats up much slower than over the Arctic. A study published in the journal Earth System Dynamics.
Scientists have found that the reason for the slow heating up of the air over Antarctica is large, the average height of the surface of the continent (2.5 thousand meters above sea level).
Conducted by experts of computer simulations showed that a decrease in the average height of the mainland would lead to the strengthening of the climate response to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations over the continent (provokes a rapid increase in temperature). These changes, noted scientists, stimulate the processes of heat transfer in the atmosphere from the equator to the South pole.
These mechanisms, according to the authors, responsible for what is happening in the Arctic, where surface level relative to the sea much lower than in Antarctica. This explains the fact that the air temperature in the Northern hemisphere is growing much faster (up to twice) than in the South.
Experts note that previously known factors responsible for the different rates of warming in the Arctic and Antarctic (primarily a decrease in the proportion of the reflected light due to the melting of the ice), also contribute to global warming. Scientists believe that because over time the level of the surface of Antarctica relative to the sea decreases, the temperature of the air above the continent will grow faster than at present.
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