Antarctica's Role In The Global Climate System

Antarctica and it’s role in the Global Climate System

The Climate of the world is made up of numerous collaborating sub-atmosphere frameworks. This paper will talk about the impact of Antarctica and its encompassing waters on each of these sub-climatic frameworks. The frameworks include: the environment, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere. The impact that Antarctica and its encompassing waters have on the atmosphere framework, as we know is connected to a fragile offset of Antarctic conditions. Cool surface temperatures and the solid Coriolis effect at high scopes make the South Polar Cell, which depicts climate designs all through Southern Australia, America, and Africa. The Antarctic waters additionally assume an urgent part in carbon

THC is a system of currents is responsible for the circulation of deep ocean water. Its mechanism is density gradients caused by regional variations in temperature and salinity. Cool water is denser than warmer water, and more saline water is denser than fresher water. Warm, fresh water from the tropics moves to the poles via surface currents, where it sinks and is replaced by rising deep water at low latitudes. This system is responsible for the distribution of heat from equator to pole, and is consequently an important climatic process. The Southern Ocean is origin of the Antarctic Bottom Water, the most prevalent deep water mass. It forms when surface water at the Ross and Weddell ice shelves cools through contact with the atmosphere. When sea ice forms in polynyas at these sites, brine is squeezed from the forming crystals and makes the surrounding ocean more saline. The combination of low temperature and high salinity cause the water to sink to the ocean floor. As new deep water is formed, the existing bottom water is pushed towards the equator and beyond it. Some bottom water rises near the equator, bringing nutrient rich cool water to the surface for the cycle to begin again. THC regulates temperatures at high latitudes by supplying heat. Without the cool conditions which lead to the formation of the Antarctic Bottom Water,

In addition to the biological processes described in section 5, chemical interactions known as the physical pump between the atmosphere and ocean lead to carbon uptake. When dissolved in seawater, carbon dioxide forms carbonate and bicarbonate ions. Greater quantities of carbon can be stored in this form than the form found in the atmosphere, and consequently, the global oceans are able to store more than a quarter of carbon dioxide produced by humans. The Southern Ocean is believed to store up to half of this carbon. Given the central role of carbon uptake in mitigating the greenhouse effect, this function of the Antarctic hydrosphere has a vital moderating effect on the global climate