Media report on on UMaine mountain glacier study
The Bangor Daily News, Phys.org, Nature World News, ScienceDaily shared a University of Maine-led study that found a combination of global atmospheric warming and westerly winds shifting toward the poles will likely speed up the recession of mountain glaciers in both hemispheres. The study compared global temperature and wind changes with glacier snow line elevations in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and in the European Alps observed over the course of nearly four decades. The results show that under global warming, the poleward contraction of the westerly winds belts may accelerate warming and glacier melting. “These results highlight the sensitivity of Earth’s mountain glaciers to broad-scale atmospheric dynamics,” said Aaron Putnam, co-author of the study and associate professor at the UMaine School of Earth and Climate Sciences.