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Firecrackers and thunder: Lightning storms accelerate the rate of ice melting in the North Pole

An international study with the participation of Tel Aviv University states: Global warming leads to lightning storms in the North Pole, which further accelerate the process of melting the ice - in a cycle of repeated feeding

Storm clouds darken over the southern tip of Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Illustration: depositphotos.com
Storm clouds darken over the southern tip of Russia's Novaya Zemlya archipelago. Illustration: depositphotos.com

A new international study with the participation of researchers from Tel Aviv University found that in parallel with the worldwide global warming trend, lightning storms lead directly to the acceleration of the process of the retreat of the ice sheets in the Arctic region. 

Prof. Colin Price and Tair Plotnik M. participated in the studyThe Department of Geophysics at the Porter School of Environment and Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University, alongside researchers from Tripura University in India. As part of the study, published in the journal Atmospheric Research, the researchers announced that: "Until recently, there was no lightning phenomenon at all in the Arctic region, due to the intense cold. With the warming of the earth, lightning storms began to form there in the summer, and these further increase the process of melting the ice - in a cycle of repeated feeding."  

As Prof. Price explains: "The Arctic region is defined as the region located north of the 66.5° north latitude. In the heart of this region, around the North Pole, there is no land, and due to the extreme cold conditions, the sea is covered with a thick layer of sea ice, which currently extends over about 8 million square kilometers. The white ice reflects the sun's rays, thus contributing to the cooling of the earth, but in recent decades, with the warming of the earth, the ice cover has retreated at a rate of about 70,000 square kilometers per year, or 6.5% per decade. (In this context, it is important to note that the temperature in the North Pole is rising at a dizzying rate - about 4° to this day, in contrast to about 1° in the whole planet). The retreat of the ice further increases the warming, as the dark seas, which are getting bigger and bigger, absorb the sun's rays. This creates a cycle of repeated feeding: the retreat of the ice increases the warming, which in turn increases the melting of the ice, and God forbid."

Lightning storms in the North Pole - one of the alarming signs of global warming

A glacial lake, Jokulsarlon is a glacial lagoon, Vatnajokull National Park in southeast Iceland, blue water speckled with ice melting from the Breidamerkurjokull glacier. Illustration: depositphotos.com
A glacial lake, Jokulsarlon is a glacial lagoon, Vatnajokull National Park in southeast Iceland, blue water speckled with ice melting from the Breidamerkurjokull glacier. Illustration: depositphotos.com

According to the researchers, the phenomenon of the melting of the ice at the poles is initially attributed to human activity which causes an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, creating a kind of 'blanket' that preserves the heat and does not allow it to escape into space. However, studies have not found a complete match between the greenhouse gas data, which increases at a more or less constant rate every year, with the rate of ice melting, which varies from year to year. Due to the discrepancy in the findings, this study sought to examine a possible effect of another factor - lightning storms - on the melting of sea ice in the Arctic region.

The researchers explain that the lightning phenomenon did not exist at all in the Arctic region until recently, due to the intense cold that prevails there. But in recent decades, apparently due to global warming, lightning storms began to form there in the summer season, at a time when the sun does not set at all and heats the surface. This means that the surface of the ground heats up, and this is how air 'bubbles' are formed that rise to a high layer in the atmosphere, where they cool and turn into clouds that sometimes develop into a lightning storm.

To test their hypothesis, that the lightning storms contribute to the melting of the ice in the North Sea, the researchers compared two sets of data: photographs from NASA satellites that have been documenting the retreat of the ice in the North Sea for more than 40 years, and lightning storm data collected by the global network WWLLN -About 70 lightning detection stations, deployed in research institutions all over the world - among others on the roof of the building of the Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Price explains: "Lightning is the result of a huge electric field that discharges at once, and transmits radio waves that can be received even at a distance of thousands of kilometers. The sensors of the global network detect and map thunderstorms anywhere on the planet, in real time and non-stop. Cross-referencing the information from the various stations allows for an accurate determination of the location and time of each lightning, and thus a global map of lightning over time is obtained. For the purpose of this study, we collected data on lightning in the Arctic region in the months of June, July and August every year since 2010."

A cycle of repeated feeding: lightning storms contribute to global warming - and God forbid 

A statistical analysis of the retreat of the ice against the number of lightning storms revealed a correspondence: as the number of storms increased in a certain year, so did the rate of melting of the glaciers in that year. The researchers explain this by saying that lightning storms act like a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks water vapor from the surface and brings it to the upper atmosphere, where it accumulates and acts like a blanket that traps the heat and increases the warming - just like greenhouse gases. 

Another possibility, observed in a previous study, is that the lightning storms increase the formation of cirrus clouds in the upper layers of the atmosphere - which also form a similar blanket.

Prof. Price concludes: "In our research we found a clear statistical relationship between the number of lightning storms in the Arctic region in a certain year and the rate of sea ice melting in that year. This means that the storms are another factor that increases the melting of the glaciers, and produces a cycle of repeated feeding: the melting of the ice increases the areas of the sea that absorb the sun's rays and increase the warming, which in turn increases the amount of lightning storms, and God forbid. As a result, and the global warming in general, we expect that the frequency of lightning storms in the Arctic region will increase in the coming years, and with it the retreat of the ice cover in the North Sea will also accelerate." 

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