By analyzing a computer model output with four times the resolution of previous models, a team of researchers has perhaps explained what has been considered a serious inconsistency in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. The findings, reported by a team that includes scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton University, explain why glaciers in the Karakoram Range of the Himalayas have remained stable while nearby glaciers have been receding. By examining the region in 50-kilometer pieces instead of 210-kilometer squares, researchers were better able to take into account the Karakoram Range’s distinct peaks and valleys. This combined with the Karakoram season cycle dominated by non-monsoonal winter precipitation protects it from reductions in annual snowfall under climate warming. “Our findings suggest a meteorological mechanism for regional differences in the glacier response to climate warming,” said ORNL’s Moet Ashfaq. The study, which appears in Nature Geoscience, could explain why the Himalayan glaciers aren’t likely to succumb to climate change by 2035 as had been predicted by the IPCC.
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