Why Antarctica Keeps Cool and Australia Heats Up During Climate Change: Rising Winds

Although climate change is impacting the globe, it's affecting some areas less than others. Now, scientists have discovered why Antarctica isn't warming nearly as much as other continents and why Australia has recorded more droughts in recent years; it's all about carbon dioxide.

It turns out that rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are actually strengthening the Southern Ocean winds, which usually deliver rain to southern Australia. Instead, these storms are being pushed further south toward Antarctica.

The researchers analyzed ice cores from Antarctica, along with data from tree rings and lakes in South America. This allowed the scientists to get a closer look at the history of the westerly winds over the last millennium.

"With greenhouse warming, Antarctica is actually stealing more of Australia's rainfall," said Nerilie Abram, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It's not good news-as greenhouse gases continue to rise we'll get fewer storms chased up into Australia. As the westerly winds are getting tighter, they're actually trapping more of the cold air over Antarctica. This is why Antarctica has bucked the trend. Every other continent is warming, and the Arctic is warming fastest of anywhere on Earth"

In fact, the researchers found that the Southern Ocean winds are now stronger than at any other time in the past 1,000 years. These strong winds have been particularly prominent over the past 70 years, and are linked to rising greenhouse gas levels.

"This new research suggests that climate models to a good job of capturing how the westerly winds respond to increasing greenhouse gases," said Matthew England, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This isn't good news for farmers reliant on winter rainfall over the southern part of Australia.

The findings are important for better understand how gases can impact weather and, more particularly, rainfall patterns across the globe.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.