Hot winds are weakening Antarctic ice sheets

Hot winds in Antarctica are having certain impacts on the icy continent.

Researcher Jenny Turton said: "Now we know how these hot winds have spread and spread in space and most importantly, it gives us a better insight into the exist Antarctic ice sheets'.

Föhn, or foehn, is known as hot, dry winds blowing from the slopes to the bottom of Antarctic icebergs. And the new study by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey said that the winds in the Antartica region began to appear more in the South than they had speculated.

Hot winds are weakening Antarctic ice sheets Picture 1

Researchers believe these hot and dry winds are increasingly hurting Antarctic ice sheets. Causing thawing, which can lead to the collapse of ice shelves, giant ice blocks, especially the continental shelf Larsen C.

In 1995, the Larsen A ice shelf collapsed. In 2002, Larsen B had the same situation. Scientists believe that this collapse is triggered by cracks and widening cracks, deepening the fractures for meltwater flow on the surface. The researchers theorized that hot foehn winds cause ice to melt, bringing meltwater flow into cracks.

In addition, the researchers found that hot winds are blowing frequently through the Larsen C ice shelf, the largest continental ice shelf of Antarctica and it is most commonly blown in the spring.

Hot winds are weakening Antarctic ice sheets Picture 2

Jenny Turton, a researcher at BAS and University of Leeds, said: "This is interesting, because the hot wind only happens about 65% in the middle of spring and summer . Now, they work. It is quite common in the spring, which will make the warm spring weather and hot winds possible to melt the iceberg surface quickly . '

" We know that the ice continental shelf often melts in the summer, but we have noticed that sometimes the föhn wind events occur as early as September, lasting about 3 months before the operation. continuing from spring to summer, this shows a tremendous devastation, prolonging the winds of ice with the surface of ice sheets as well as providing us with insight into the extreme effects that are happening in Antarctica ".

The researchers presented this finding at the European Union of Earth Sciences Congress, which took place in Vienna, Austria.