Climate change accelerates one of the strongest currents on Earth

The only ocean current that circumnavigate the planet is speeding up, according to research that has detected a change in the Antarctic Ocean, the region that absorbs most of the human-induced warming globally.

The analysis of decades of data has allowed scientists to verify, for the first time, that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (CCA) is undergoing this acceleration, indicates a study published by Nature Climate Change, signed by American and Chinese experts.

For him The study used satellite measurements of the height of the sea surface and data collected by the global network of ocean buoys Argo (in full operation since 2007), to detect a trend in the speed of the upper layer of the Antarctic Ocean that had remained hidden from scientists until now.

The prevailing westerly winds have accelerated as the climate warms and models show that it does not change ocean currents much, but rather dynamizes ocean eddies, which are circular movements of water that go against the main currents. .

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From both observations and models, the team saw that ocean temperature change is causing the significant acceleration in ocean currents detected over the past decades.

The CEC surrounds Antarctica and separates the cold water from the south from the warmer subtropical water just to the north. This warmer part of the ocean absorbs much of the heat that human activities add to Earth’s atmosphere.

For this reason, scientists consider it vital to understand its dynamics, since what happens in it could influence the climate in other places, he told the University of San Diego (USA) in a statement.

The ocean’s warming pattern is important. When the gradient, or amount of heat difference, between warm and cold waters increases, the currents between those two masses accelerate.

“The CCA is driven primarily by the wind, but we show that the changes in its speed are surprisingly largely due to changes in the heat gradient,” said Lynne Talley, co-author of the report from the University of San Diego.

For the authors, it is likely that the speed of the current increases further as the Southern Ocean continues to absorb heat from human-induced global warming.

Nature Climate Change publishes another study in which it is considered that the strategic withdrawal of super-polluting power plants could cumulatively save six million lives in the world between 2010 and 2050, assuming that mitigation policies are applied that successfully avoid global warming of 1 , 5 degrees.

Research from Peking Tsinghua University suggests that the health benefits of climate change mitigation may depend on complementary programs, such as the deployment of pollution control technologies and the removal of super-polluting units. (I)