Remote Antarctica can feel like the most isolated place on Earth and in many ways it is a step to another world. However, the icy continent is more closely connected to the rest of the planet than it seems. Now, scientists discovered that the South Pole is warming at a rate almost three times faster than the global average, and much of that warming is related to climate cycles occurring thousands of miles away in the tropics.
A study published yesterday in the journal Nature Climate Change examined air temperatures on the surface of the world’s southernmost weather observatory: the Amundsen-Scott station.The findings showed that temperatures there increased by about one degree Fahrenheit (0.556oC) every decade since the beginning of 1990, approximately three times faster than the global average. According to the researchers, the likely cause is changing weather patterns in the tropics, particularly warm Pacific ocean temperatures that cause a different interaction with the atmosphere and, as a result, carry more hot air south to Antarctica.This, in turn, may have been influenced by natural climate fluctuation. The Antarctic oscillation, also known as Southern Override Mode, helps regulate a belt of west winds flowing around the Antarctic continent and can cause these winds to periodically strengthen or weaken. They explain, when the winds are stronger, they help push that warm air over Antarctica, warming up the South Pole.
This suggests that recent warming could, in theory, have occurred without any influence of man-made climate change; though it is true that it strengthened the trends observed in recent decades. The complexity of the Antarctic climate and how heavily influenced by climate cycles in completely different regions of the world is evident.
