An international team of climatologists has found the reason why the atmosphere over Antarctica heats up much more slowly than over the Arctic. The corresponding study was published in the journal Earth System Dynamics, briefly reported by the European Geophysical Union.
Scientists have found that the reason for the slow heating of the air over Antarctica is the high average height of the continent's surface (2.5 thousand meters above sea level).
Computer simulations carried out by specialists have shown that a decrease in the average height of the continent would lead to an intensification of the climate response to an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases over the continent (provoking a rapid increase in temperatures). Such changes, scientists noted, stimulate the processes of heat transfer in the atmosphere from the equator to the south pole.
These mechanisms, according to the authors, are responsible for what is happening in the Arctic, where the surface level relative to the sea is much lower than in Antarctica. This is what explains the fact that the air temperature in the northern hemisphere rises much faster (up to two times) than in the southern.
Experts note that previously known factors responsible for different rates of warming in the Arctic and Antarctic (primarily, a decrease in the proportion of reflected light due to melting ice) also contribute to global warming. Scientists believe that as the level of Antarctica's surface relative to the sea decreases over time, the air temperature over the mainland will rise faster than at present.