The Tibetan plateau is heating up by 0.3掳C each decade, more than twice the worldwide average, according to a new study from the Tibet Meteorological Bureau.
The findings, reported by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, underscore a growing understanding that high elevations in tropical regions are experiencing dramatic temperature increases similar to those seen at the poles.
鈥淲hether you are in the Himalayas, the Andes, or Africa, the temperature is rising highest at the highest elevations,鈥� says Lonnie Thompson, a glaciologist at the Ohio State University (See Interview: The Ice Man cometh). 鈥淭hey are seeing an acceleration in temperature rise that is very consistent with the high-elevation glacial retreat we are seeing.鈥�
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Over the last 50 years, temperatures in the Arctic and Antarctica have risen by 0.2掳C and approximately 0.5掳C per decade, respectively, according to data from the .
Warming waters
The reason surface temperatures at the poles are warming so quickly is because the seawater temperature around them has risen faster there than anywhere else on Earth.
In the tropics, warming waters also play a role. When the already warm tropical waters heat up further, due to global warming, they evaporate even more moisture, which rises straight to the upper atmosphere.
鈥淭hat is latent heat that is rising from the sea and released back to the atmosphere in the mid to upper troposphere,鈥� says Thompson. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 where the Tibetan plateau weather stations are located.鈥�
In 2000, researchers published a study looking at . They found that temperature was not only increasing with time, but also with elevation across the plateau, concluding the data suggests the plateau is 鈥渙ne of the most sensitive areas鈥� in the world in its response to global climate change.
A study published in 2006 in Science found similar .
Previous studies have found that all glaciers in the central and eastern Himalayas could disappear by 2035 at their present rate of decline. The melting glaciers threaten to unleash massive flooding followed by severe droughts across South Asia.
