Climate Researchers Blame Himalayan Glaciers “Melting Much More Slowly” On Warming!

New paper in ‘Nature’: Himalayan glaciers melting much more slowly than expected, researchers blame warming!

Image: NASA (public domain)

Germany’s online Frankfurter Rundschau (FR) reports on “baffled scientists” and how the Himalayan glaciers are cooling, yet insist the reason is global warming. The FR reports:

This development is unusual because the Himalayan glaciers have continuously lost mass over the past five decades. The main reason for this is the continuing rise in temperature. However, the glaciers appear to be melting much more slowly than expected. According to the researchers, this is due to so-called katabatic winds. These occur over cold, partly icy surfaces of glaciers. “The air above glaciers cools down, becomes heavier and then flows downwards to warmer surroundings,” writes swz.at. The researchers have not yet been able to fully determine whether the Himalayan glacier becoming colder is positive news. “While the warming of the atmosphere is increasing glacier melting, the lowering of near-surface air temperatures has shifted the extent of cooling,” writes the team of researchers. Initially, a slower melting glacier would be positive news, but will it last?”

The original study appeared in ‘Nature’: Local cooling and drying induced by Himalayan glaciers under global warming

Hat-tip: Klimanachrichten hier

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