Scientists are scared that if the cold weather continues for the next couple of weeks, the seasonal hole in the Artic ozone layer could worsen this year.
European Union scientists said that exceptionally cold conditions and persistent polar clouds alter the chemistry of the ozone layer. With temperatures in the Arctic ozone layer, now the coldest for 50 years, and have been consistently low for two months, this results in losses in the ozone layer when spring sunlight returns in the coming weeks, they said.
Researchers from the EU’s SCOUT-03 project, which involves over 200 scientists from 19 countries, fear that the ozone hole this time could be even bigger than manmade chemical products in 1999-2000 that eat up over 65 per cent of the ozone. And a gaping hole in the Arctic ozone could mean higher levels of UV radiation in some inhabited areas in northern Europe, such as Scandinavia. “But whether this massive loss of ozone occurs depends on whether the polar stratospheric clouds stick around for the next six to eight weeks,” researchers said.
They said the first signs of Arctic ozone loss have already been seen 20 km above the Earth. The polar clouds are forecasted to stay for at least the next 10 days, but predicting the weather in the stratosphere is no more reliable than regular weather predicting, researchers said.
Meanwhile, another group of scientists have found out that huge glaciers in remote areas of Antarctica are thinning and ice shelves the size of American states are either disintegrating or retreating – all possible indications of global warming. Scientists from British Antarctica Survey reported in December that in some parts of the Antarctica Peninsula, large growths of grass are appearing in places that until recently were hidden under a frozen cloak.
Dr. Robert Thomas, a glaciologist from NASA who is the lead author of a recent paper on accelerating sea-level rise, said: “The evidence is piling up. Around the Amundsen Sea, we have surveyed half a dozen glaciers, all are thinning, and in some cases quite rapidly, and in each case, the ice shelf is also thinning.”
Glaciologists also know that by itself, free-floating sea ice does not raise the level of the sea, just as an ice-cube in a glass of water does not cause an overflow as it melts. But glaciers are different because they rest on land, and if that vast volume of ice slides into the sea at a high rate, this adds mass to the ocean, which in turn can raise the global sea level.
