Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Recent international research has revealed that lightning storms contribute to an accelerated rate of sea ice melting in the Arctic region.
The first sign of the spring melt – a stream is seen flowing on the ice – Alaska, Tigvariak Island, North Slope. Image credit: Harley D. Nygren (1924–2019) – Public Domain
This previously underestimated phenomenon is exacerbating the already concerning decline of the polar ice caps, with potentially far-reaching implications for global climate patterns and ecological systems, according to an international study involving researchers from Tel Aviv University.
The stydy has revealed that in addition to the overall warming of the planet, lightning storms have been directly accelerating the ongoing process of sea ice retreat across the Arctic Ocean.
“Until recently, lightning was extremely rare in the Arctic region of the North Pole, due to the intense cold. However, due to the warming of the Earth, lightning storms have become more common there in the summers, and these storms further increase the melting process of the ice sheets—in a feedback loop.”
“The Arctic region is defined as the region located north of the 66.5° latitude,” said Prof. Colin Price from the Department of Geophysics at TAU’s Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences.
“In the heart of this region, around the North Pole, there is no land, and due to the extreme cold conditions, the sea is covered with a thick layer of sea ice, which currently extends over about 8 million square kilometers. The white ice reflects the sun’s rays and thus contributes to the cooling of the Earth.”
In recent decades, the Earth’s warming has led to a significant retreat of the ice cover at an alarming rate of approximately 70,000 square kilometers per annum, or 6.5% per decade. It is imperative to note that the temperature at the North Pole has been escalating at an accelerated pace, reaching approximately 4° Celsius to date, in stark contrast to the global average temperature rise of around 1° Celsius. This disconcerting trend underscores the urgency of addressing the issue of climate change and its profound impact on the Arctic region.
“The retreat of the ice increases the warming even further, because the dark areas of the ocean under the ice, which are getting bigger and bigger, absorb the sun’s rays that would normally be reflected in space.
“This is how a feedback loop is created: the retreat of the ice increases the warming, which in turn increases the melting of the ice, and the cycle repeats.”
The melting of ice sheets in the polar regions is primarily attributed to the consequences of human activities, specifically the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. It creates a “blanket” that preserves the heat and does not allow it to disperse into space.
However, studies have not found a direct match between the greenhouse gas changes, which increase at a more or less constant rate every year, and the rate of sea ice melting, which varies immensely from year to year.
Lightning was an infrequent event in the Arctic region until recent times, primarily due to the intense cold temperatures in that area.
However, in the past few decades, there has been an apparent increase in the frequency of lightning storms observed during the summer months, when the sun remains above the horizon, heating the heating of the surface.
This phenomenon can be attributed to global warming. Lightning storms typically form when the ground surface heats up, causing poair pocketso rise into the atmosphere, where they cool, condense, and form clouds that sometimes develop into thunderstorms.
“In our research, we found a clear statistical relationship between the number of lightning storms in the Arctic region in a certain year and the rate of sea ice melting that year, Prof. Price concludes.
This means that the storms are another factor that increases the melting of the polar ice, producing a feedback loop: The initial melting of the ice increases the dark surface areas of the sea, which absorb more of the sun’s rays, warming up the waters, causing more melting, accelerating the rate of warming, which in turn increases the number of lightning storms, and the cycle repeats itself.
“As a result of this, and of the warming of the Earth in general, we expect that the frequency of lightning storms in the Arctic region will increase in the coming years, and with it, the rate of sea ice retreat in the Arctic Sea will accelerate.”
Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer