Antarctic glaciers flow faster as climate warms

 

New research has revealed that hundreds of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are melting faster, adding to rising sea levels.

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The authors found that climate warming has already caused the Antarctic Peninsula’s increased summer snow melt and ice shelf retreat.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists used radar images captured by European ERS-1 and -2 satellites to track the flow rate of more than 300 previously unstudied glaciers.

They found a 12 per cent increase in glacier speed from 1993 to 2003.

These observations - which echo recent findings from coastal Greenland - indicate that the cause is melting of the lower glaciers, which flow directly into the sea.

As they thin, the buoyancy of the ice can lift the glaciers off their rock beds, allowing them to slide faster.

In February this year, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that they could not provide an upper limit on the rate of sea-level rise from Antarctica in coming centuries because of a lack of understanding of the behaviour of the large ice sheets.

Clearer picture of global warming's effect on glaciers

These new results give scientists a clearer picture about the way that climate warming can affect glaciers both in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Furthermore, they pave the way for more reliable projections of future sea level rise, and provide a better basis for policy decisions.

Lead author Dr Hamish Pritchard said: "The Antarctic Peninsula has experienced some of the fastest warming on Earth, nearly 3ºC over the last half-century.

"Eighty-seven percent of its glaciers have been retreating during this period and now we see these glaciers are also speeding up.

"It’s important that we use tools such as satellite technology that allow us to monitor changes in remote and inaccessible glaciers on a regional scale.

"Understanding what’s happening now gives us our best chance of predicting what’s likely to happen in the future," he concluded. 

The study was published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

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