Rising temperatures could increase the amount of snowfall over Antarctica which may help reduce the rise in global sea level, a new study has found.
When Antarctica’s air temperature rises, moisture in the atmosphere increases. That should mean more snowfall on the frozen continent, researchers said.
However, as climate models predict, that trend has not become evident in Antarctica’s surface mass balance. Scientists from Columbia University in the US used historical records and climate simulations to examine that trend.
They found that the effect of rising temperatures on snowfall has so far been overshadowed by Antarctica’s large natural climate variability, which comes from random, chaotic variations in the polar weather.
By mid-century, however, as temperatures continue to rise, the study shows how the effect of human-induced warming on Antarctica’s net snow accumulation should emerge above the noise.
The expectation of more snowfall is something of a silver lining as temperatures rise. Global warming is already increasing sea level through melting ice and thermal expansion, researchers said.
The increase in snowfall over Antarctica could help reduce the amount of global sea level rise by 51 to 79 millimetres by the year 2100, according to the study.
“Increased snowfall over Antarctica is the sole process connected to global warming that is thought to have a significant mitigating effect on global sea level rise,” said Michael Previdi from Columbia University in the US.