Mysterious decoding of strange ice holes constantly appearing in Antarctica for decades

In the early 1970s, when satellite technology allowed for the first time to capture images of the Earth from space, people also obtained many strange images. One of them is the mysterious ice hole that appears on the Antarctic Lazarev iceberg.

Icebergs in Antarctica fluctuate seasonally. In winter, there are many, the summer is gone. However, the problem lies on an iceberg that appears a very strange hole that no one can explain, though it took decades to find out.

On an iceberg, there was a strange hole that no one could explain.

Around the end of 2017 - Antarctic winter's coldest month, the most dense moment of iceberg - that hole suddenly appeared. It is 9,500 km ² wide, and is constantly expanding to 740% in the next 2 months before disappearing when summer comes.

But in the end, after decades of hard work, recently, experts from New York Abu Dhabi University (NYUAD) got the answer. These pits are called polynya (or plankholes), which are left over from large tornadoes at sea.

In September 2017, the cold and warm air waves collided in Antarctica, creating a tornado with wind speeds of up to 117km / h. The tsunami of up to 16m high broke out, pushing the ice here to sweep all directions around the storm center. When the storm dissipates, what remains will be the icebergs that have been gathered, with a hole in the middle - the location of the storm center.

Although the story of the story may sound very fierce, the consequence of polynya is somewhat interesting and even important. It creates a great environment for polar wildlife, including seals and penguins, as well as accommodation for plankton.

Polynya holes are like a window, connecting the world under the ice to the sky.

However, these holes can also be seen as a sign of climate change.

"Polynya pits are like a window, connecting the world under the ice to the sky, and transporting large amounts of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere during the winter" - Diana Francis, the study author said.

" Because of their large size, they affect the climate of the whole region, and even the world when the ocean continues to rotate."

This is what makes this study important. Polynyas can basically create a good habitat for animals, but their occurrence also has a significant impact on the climate, and can even affect the current rate of global warming. The more they appear, the more predictable the climate prediction model is.

According to Francis, it is very important to detect polynya holes that can affect so many things, and the rate they actually do is relatively high. As the climate is getting warmer, storms are also more powerful, more frequent and closer to Antarctica, enabling more and more polynya to appear.

To predict climate disasters, the addition of another variable, polynya, is not really what the scientific community expects.

The research is published in Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.