Global ice melting is increasing at a record rate.

New findings have revealed that the annual melting rate of global ice has risen sharply and corresponds to the worst-case scenario predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The peer-reviewed findings, made by researchers from the UK and published in the European Geoscience Union’s journal The Cryosphere, are among the first comprehensive analyzes of global ice loss.

Excluding permafrost and winter snowfall, the survey covered all of the planet’s ice — 215,000 mountain glaciers across the globe, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, ice shelves in the Arctic and the Antarctic, as well as sea ice Huh. In the polar regions.

Previous research has focused on specific types of ice or icy structures such as glaciers or polar caps.

Based on satellite and in situ data, the findings showed that worldwide melting rates rose from 0.8 trillion tons in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tons by 2017, covering a period in which records. But the warmest 20 years was accompanied by a rise in the average temperature-every year and decade.

It was also revealed that the Earth had lost 28 trillion tons of ice between 1994 and 2017 — the equivalent of a 100-meter thick ice sheet covering Britain’s whole.

In the four decades studied, ice loss accelerated to a rate of 57 per cent. Half of all ice was lost from the ground, and sea level has already risen by 3.5 cm due to ice melting.

Current IPCC estimates state that sea levels may be limited to 26–55 cm in this century if emissions are drastically cut and global temperatures rise below 1.5 C from pre-industrial times. But if the emission remains high, and the temperature exceeds 2 ° C, the sea level is expected to increase by 52–98 cm.

Several studies have indicated that IPCC worst-case estimates are still conservative. The IPCC estimates for the degree of sea-level rise are based on a range of known factors but exclude unknown and poorly understood aspects such as cloud cover modelling.

What findings show

The survey found that every ice-making category worldwide lost significant amounts of snow during the last four decades.

7.6 trillion tons of Arctic Sea ice, 6.5 trillion tons in Antarctic ice shelves, 6.1 trillion tons in mountain glaciers, 3.8 trillion tons of ice sheets in Greenland, 2.5 trillion tons of ice sheets in the Antarctic and sea ice in the Southern Ocean (Antarctica Around) loss of. ) 0.9 trillion tons.

While snow loss from the Northern Hemisphere was 58 per cent, the Southern Hemisphere lost 42 per cent.

Additionally, melting gained the fastest speeds for Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the research found.

The study also found that 68 per cent of the ice loss — from Arctic sea ice, mountain glaciers, ice cooling shelves, and ice sheet surfaces — was caused by the atmosphere’s warming.

The remaining 32 per cent loss, mainly from ice sheets and ice shelves, was caused by the oceans’ warming.

Melting damage

Melting of ice worldwide triggers a positive feedback loop where some melting of ice causes further melting.

Thus, the ice is white and acts as a giant umbrella around the Earth, reflecting a large portion of sunlight and heat. When the ice melts, this albedo, or reflectivity, is lost, which increases the absorption of heat under deep water or ground. This subsequently leads to more rapid melting of the remaining ice.

More than 99 per cent of the Earth’s polar ice sheets are frozen on Earth’s freshwater ice, and the rapid and quick melting of such ice is expected to result in a steep rise in sea level within this century.

These changes are expected to cause increasing strange and extreme weather events, severe floods, disturbances in ocean currents and disruptions in the Earth’s natural water cycle.

Originally published at https://www.newsdaily.in.net on January 27, 2021.