As
the planet warms, the mass of Earth will be redistributed and cause the planet
to rotate faster, adding to the plethora of challenges global warming
threatens. Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere heats up the
globe, and as a result the polar ice caps melt. With less frozen bodies in the
north and south, the mass of the planet will be slightly off kilter as the
remains travel into the ocean, causing sea levels to rise.
The
redistribution of mass across the globe will cause the planet to speed up. Felix
Landerer of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, said:
“Think of an ice skater who is spinning. When you stretch your arms out you
slow down, and when you bring your arms closer to your body you spin faster.”
In
this analogy, Earth is tucking its arms into its waist, or the equator, causing
the globe to rotate quicker.
Scientists
predict that by 2200, the lengths of the day will be 0.12 milliseconds quicker.
While this does seem insignificant, it does add up over the course of a year
and it could exacerbate climate change. A faster rotation means more energy
will be given to cyclones and hurricanes, which are already getting stronger.
Steve
Hench, a retired computational science and physicist at Los Alamos National
Laboratory, wrote on Q+A site Quora: “The coriolus effect, which is the
influence of the earth’s rotation on the movement of large-scale atmospheric
and ocean currents would be stronger. This might result in more intense and
smaller-scale cyclonic behaviours.”
Peter
Howell, who has a degree in chemistry and worked as physicist for 10 years,
added: “The Coriolis Effect would be stronger, which would probably mean
stronger trade winds and more pronounced cyclones, although there may be
another limiting factor effecting those.
“One
possible side effect of that would also be that the transfer of ocean and air
currents would be less able to move from equatorial to Polar Regions, making
the high latitudes much colder and the tropics even hotter.”
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