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Ice levels are actually expanding rather than shrinking.
In a recent statement NASA came to surprise both public and scientific community with a new discovery. Antarctica ice levels are expanding not shrinking. It seems that doomsday scenarios where the ice caps would melt due to the shrinking of ice levels seem to be far-fetched according to recent data gathered by the space agency.
Furthermore, scientists point out that the ice caps in Antarctica have expanded so much, that they’ve actully reached their peak since NASA starting measuring their expansion via satellite imagery. Still, gaining also implies the prospect of losing.
Officials from NASA warned us that although the ice levels in Antarctica are continuing to expand, they do no expand rapidly enough to compensate for the losses in ice levels at the southern pole.
Antarctica ice levels are expanding while Artic ice levels are slowly diminishing. According to a couple of higly-cited studies, global warming can be a key factor in explaining why the ice levels in Antarctica are rising. Scientist explained that recent changes in weather patterns could account for the shift in ice levels, as cool air currents are rushed towards the south.
At the very heart of their theory stands a low-pressure air current system rumored to be center around the Amundsen Sea. It seems that this current has doubled its frequency and it is growing stronger by the day. Henceforth, the current keeps pushing warm air towards Antarctica, and cold air towards the region located in the Ross Sea, where the ice levels are increasing.
Now, for a couple of official statistics provided by NASA. It seems that since the 1970’, when NASA took an interest in studying the ice levels using satellite imagery, the Arctic region lost more than 50.000 square kilometers of ice, while the Antarctic region gained additional 18.900 square kilometers.
This year, on September the 19th, according to data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the ice levels in the Antarctic sea region rose above 20 million square kilometers. Now, with the courtesy of the NSIDC, we are able to provide you with a round figure. It would seem that between 1981 and 2010, the average rate of expansion in ice levels was 18.72 million square kilometers.
Further research is being done in order to ascertain whether global warming is contributing to the increase in ice levels in the Arctic region. Although this phenomenon seems to help the overall water level to stabilize it may not be enough to offset the long-term effects of global warming.
Image source: www.pixabay.com
