Is an Ice Age Coming Due to Global Warming?..."Not True"

Polar Research Institute Announces Results of Salinity Changes in Arctic and Antarctic
Glacier Melt Caused Freshwater Inflow but Salinity Levels Show No Significant Change
No Detection of Changes in Ocean Circulation System Featured in Movie 'Tomorrow'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The movie Tomorrow warned of a massive disaster in which the entire Earth would be covered in ice due to the collapse of the ocean circulation system caused by the melting of glaciers in Antarctica and the Arctic due to rapid climate warming. However, the answer found by Korean scientists was "No."

The Korea Polar Research Institute announced on the 19th that after tracking changes in salinity in the Nordic Seas of the Arctic over the past 30 years, no strong influence was confirmed that would slow down or stop the ocean circulation speed due to the increased freshwater inflow caused by global warming.

The ocean circulates like a huge conveyor belt, sending energy from low latitudes to high latitudes. The starting point of this circulation is the polar seas, where the surface seawater cools and becomes heavier, causing it to sink and drive the circulation. This is because the density of seawater increases when the temperature drops or salinity rises.

Global warming is known to raise the temperature of polar seas or increase the amount of freshwater flowing into the ocean by melting land glaciers, thereby lowering the surface density. When the surface density of polar seas decreases, it affects ocean circulation. In the movie Tomorrow, the ice age occurred because this circulation stopped. However, quantitative analysis of the spatiotemporal changes in polar seas has hardly been conducted due to the limitations of field access.

Average salinity distribution in the Nordic Sea in March and September from 1991 to 2019 (A, B) and spatial gradients (C, D). The spatial gradient indicates the degree of rapid change in salinity and is strongly observed where waters of different properties meet. Image provided by the Korea Polar Research Institute.

Dr. Kim Hyun-chul and his research team at the Korea Polar Research Institute found a solution to this problem using satellite observation data. The team analyzed changes in salinity in the Nordic Seas, an area twelve times the size of the Korean Peninsula (2.588 million km²) located between Greenland, Norway, and Iceland, from 1991 to 2019 by linking field data with wide-area satellite data.

In the waters adjacent to Greenland, seasonal changes were clearly observed. The research team identified freshwater supplied by melting sea ice in summer and seawater with different salinities flowing in from adjacent seas such as the Arctic Ocean and the Norwegian Sea as the main causes of salinity changes in the Greenland Sea.

However, the influence of freshwater appearing near the coast on the entire Nordic Seas was found to be limited. When checking the periods of lowest salinity in the Nordic Seas between 1991 and 2019, no specific trend such as a continuous decrease in salinity over time was observed.

The team interpreted that freshwater flowing into the Nordic Seas from land or the Arctic was not strong enough to lower the overall salinity of the Nordic Seas as it flowed out to other seas due to ocean currents.

Dr. Kim stated, "Based on this research, we cannot conclude that global warming does not affect the ocean's thermohaline circulation," but warned, "Greenland, adjacent to the Nordic Seas, is one of the regions where the most ice is melting on Earth. Different patterns from previous observations may emerge if global warming continues."

This research was published in the September issue of the international journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.