The significant drought in southwest Australia may be linked to increased snowfall in the Antarctic over the past 30 years, researchers say.They say understanding the connection could help farmers in Western Australia plan for years to come.
Analysis of ice cores, drilled at Law Dome just inland from Australia's Casey Station in the Antarctic, shows snowfall may be linked to climate in the Australian sector of the Southern Ocean and southwest WA.
Advertisement: Story continues below Dr Tas van Ommen, Principal Research Scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart, presented his research results at Curtin University in Perth on Monday.
Dr van Ommen said the ice cores from the Law Dome site provided a record of annual snowfall variations stretching back over 750 years.
Over the past 30 years, the cores indicated there had been a significant increase in snowfall in that area, he said.
This inversely correlated to significantly lower rainfall and subsequent drought in the southwest of Western Australia.
Read article
No comments:
Post a Comment