nuclear-news

Greenland Sea has warmed 10 times faster than global ocean

“We have to keep in mind, that 90 per cent of all this warming that we are generating is accumulated in the ocean.”..

Study to focus on Arctic after Greenland Sea found to have warmed 10 times faster than global ocean ABC News, By Phoebe McDonald Sat 2 Nov 2013,Scientists have revealed plans to examine temperature changes in the Arctic Ocean after a long-term study found the Greenland Sea is warming 10 times faster than the global ocean.

Scientists from Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) analysed temperature data from the Greenland Sea between 1950 and 2010.

Their results show that during the past 30 years water temperatures between two kilometres deep and the ocean floor have risen by 0.3 degrees Celsius.

Dr Raquel Somavilla Cabrillo, AWI scientist and lead author of the study, says researchers are surprised by the results.

“For a long time it was considered that the deep Arctic region was in a stationary state …[but] much more than we thought is changing,” she said. Dr Somavilla says that the contribution from the Greenland Sea to global rising sea levels is greater than expected, and that scientists must now examine the Arctic Ocean in more detail to fully understand how the world’s oceans react to climate change.

“Because the changes in temperature are so fast – faster than the average of the rest of the ocean – then the contribution [to rising sea levels] is larger than expected for this region,” she said.

“That is the reason that we have to look to the rest of the Arctic, because it may be similar, and then we will have to recalculate the contribution of the whole area.”

Dr Somavilla says warmer water has been flowing from the Arctic Ocean into the Greenland Sea and the new research will focus on this area.

Degree of warming a cause for concern

Dr Somavilla says the Arctic region is a leading indicator of climate change.

“It has one of the highest sensitivities to climate warming, that is clear,” she said.

She says a deep water temperature increase of 0.3 degrees Celsius may sound like a small number, but it needs to be seen in relation to the large mass of water that has been warmed.

“The amount of heat accumulated within the lowest 1.5 kilometres in the abyssal Greenland Sea would warm the atmosphere above Europe by 4 degrees Celsius,” she said.

“The Greenland Sea is just a small part of the global ocean. However, the observed increase is 10 times higher than the temperature increase in the global ocean on average.”

“The warming that we can expect as a result of the increase in greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere can be accumulated in the atmosphere, in the upper layers of the ocean or in the deep ocean,” she said.

“We have to keep in mind, that 90 per cent of all this warming that we are generating is accumulated in the ocean.”……….. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-02/deep-greenland-sea-is-warming-ten-times-faster-than-global-ocean/5065856

November 4, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, oceans