As the planet's climate changes, large-scale and destructive natural events, such as powerful storms, have begun to occur more often. This remains an indisputable fact, but only recently have scientists provided a serious scientific basis for this trend. The results of the study, which involved researchers from the University of Houston, California Institute of Technology and Guilin University of Electronic Engineering (China), were recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
Using data obtained from meteorological satellites over the past 35 years, scientists have studied in detail the movement and interaction of mechanical energies in the atmosphere. This is the first major study of long-term variations in the Lorentz energy cycle, a complex formula used to describe the interaction between potential and kinetic energy in the atmosphere. The work allowed a new look at what is happening to the world in the context of global warming.
“We have found that the efficiency of the Earth’s global atmosphere as a heat engine has been increasing over the past four decades in response to climate change,” says Leaming Lee, associate professor of physics at the University of Houston, of the study. At the same time, he explains that in this case, the increase in efficiency is rather a negative moment, reports the portal Phys.org.
The authors of the study note that as the thermal efficiency of the Earth's atmosphere increases, more potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. The latter, in turn, is the driving force in the atmosphere. As a result, the potential for destructive storms is growing in the regions where this conversion occurs.
Note that previous similar studies covered much shorter time periods - from five to ten years. Active satellite observations have allowed the authors of the new study to analyze data over the past 35 years.
According to the researchers, the total mechanical energy of the global atmosphere remained constant throughout this period. However, scientists have noted a significant increase in the so-called "vortex energy", the same energy that is associated with the formation of storms, eddies and turbulence.
Leaming Lee notes that the tendencies to increase vortex energies were especially noticeable in the southern hemisphere and in parts of Asia. They contributed to the intensification of thunderstorm activity over the southern oceans and the aggravation of drought in Central Asia.
“This is a new perspective that explains global warming from an energy point of view,” the scientist emphasized.
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