Communications Earth & Environment<\/em>, will help to improve future predictions of Greenland ice sheet formations and Arctic Sea ice melting in coming decades.<\/p>\nEl Ni\u00f1o events<\/h3>\n \u201cThe Greenland ice sheet is melting in the long run due to global warming associated with greenhouse gas emissions, but the pace of that melting has slowed in the last decade,\u201d explained Hokkaido University environmental Earth scientist, Shinji Matsumura. \u201cThat slowing was a mystery until our research showed it is connected to changes to the El Ni\u00f1o climate pattern in the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o is a natural, cyclic phenomenon that raises the water temperature in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean. Scientists understand that such large-scale changes alter atmospheric conditions elsewhere due to their association with powerful waves of air pressure called teleconnections. However, climate experts struggled to identify how the Pacific El Ni\u00f1o could cool Greenland climates in the summer, because easterly summer winds in the tropics usually prevent such teleconnections from forming.<\/p>\n
The slowdown in Greenland\u2019s summertime warming<\/h3>\n In the new study, the research team accounted for recent changes in the Pacific El Ni\u00f1o event, which drove the warmer sea temperatures further North than usual. This took them beyond the influence of the Easterly wind and allowed atmospheric teleconnections that reach Greenland to form.<\/p>\n
As a result, these teleconnections disrupt the atmospheric conditions and thus the weather around Greenland in the summertime. Specifically, they drive more intense cyclones, distributing colder air over the land. This explains the lower-than-expected temperatures and ice melting in the region. Temperatures and rates of ice sheet melting both peaked in 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe findings, and the slowdown in Greenland\u2019s summertime warming, do not undermine the seriousness of climate change or the need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions,\u201d Matsumura stresses.<\/p>\n
Rather, they demonstrate how natural changes can act alongside the long-term global warming trend to vary local conditions. The slowdown in warming is local to Greenland, while the wider Arctic region remains one of the fastest warming locations on Earth.<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1o events tend to be followed by similar but different natural climatic shifts called La Ni\u00f1a, in which sea surface temperatures drop. These events tend to bring higher temperatures to Greenland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expect that global warming and ice sheet melting in Greenland and the rest of the Arctic will accelerate even further in the future due to the effects of anthropogenic warming,\u201d Matsumura concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers at Hokkaido University have discovered that climate change in the tropical Pacific has temporarily decelerated ice melting rates in Greenland, resulting in slower summer warming. While wider Arctic regions are suffering due to climate change, and are warming at a terrifying rate, over the last decade scientists have been perplexed as to why Greenland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":20136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24433,785],"tags":[689,789],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Researchers analyse Greenland\u2019s slower summer warming trend<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n