Posted on 06/06/2007 6:36:25 PM PDT by nypokerface
IRVINE, Calif., June 6 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say dirty snow might be as much to blame as greenhouse gases for a third or more of Arctic warming. U niversity of California-Irvine Associate Professor Charlie Zender said snow becomes dirty as the result of soot from vehicle tailpipes, smoke stacks and forest fires that enters the atmosphere and falls to the ground.
Soot-infused snow is darker than natural snow and dark surfaces absorb sunlight and cause warming, Zender said. Bright surfaces reflect heat back into space and cause cooling.
"When we inject dirty particles into the atmosphere and they fall onto snow, the net effect is we warm the polar latitudes," said Zender. "Dark soot can heat up quickly. It's like placing tiny toaster ovens into the snow pack."
The study appears in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
http://www.iceagenow.com/Antarctic_Ice_Cap_Growing_Thicker.htm
Ice and snow piling up over a large area of Antarctica
- 19 May 2005 - According to a new study published in the online edition of Science, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet gained about 45 billion tons of ice between 1992 and 2003. The ice sheets are several kilometers thick in places, and contain about 90% of the world’s ice.
Using data from the European Space Agency’s radar satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2, a research team from the University of Missouri, Columbia, measured changes in altitude over about 70% of Antarctica’s interior. East Antarctica thickened at an average rate of about 1.8 centimeters per year over the time period studied, the researchers discovered.
The region comprises about 75% of Antarctica ‘s total land area and about 85% of the total ice volume. The area in question covers more than 2.75 million square miles - roughly the same size as the United States.
(This means that more than 90 percent of the world’s glaciers are growing thicker … while the media keeps yelling about the ones that are melting.)
When the volcanic soot falls on the glaciers, it is then in play. In Alaska’s glaciers, they point out the eruptions’ deposits.
:’) WiC, pp 22-23, EiU 131-2, 134-5
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