It is no secret that the icy regions of our planet, like the Arctic?and Antarctica, are being affected the most due to climate change and global warming.?
And we already know that the melting of ice will cause the levels of water to rise and endanger coastal areas even more.?
However, new research hints that this will also result in the water movement to get more intense, with waves as high as a two-storey building.?
This is according to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters by researchers from the Environment and Climate Change Canada. For coming to this conclusion, they took the help of five different multi-model simulations of oceanic and atmospheric conditions in two different time periods -- Historic ones looking at wave movement from 1979 to 2005 and a future-focused looking at years 2081 to 2100, when the researchers predicted that Arctic region might not have much ice left during summers.?
The research reveals that with a reduction in ice levels, it allows for more surface area on the water that allows winds more potential for generation of surface gravity waves. Moreover, there will be less ice to actually tame the heavy waves. Simulations have shown that in some areas the waves could rise as high as 6 metres and such waves could occur at higher frequencies.?
As of now, extreme waves occur in every twenty years. However, by the end of this century, we can expect it to occur as frequent as at least once in a five year period.?
At the Arctic shores, like the coastline of the Beaufort Sea, researchers claim that the height of the waves won¡¯t be as intense and would max out at around 2 metres. Yet, since people reside in that region, the impact could be grave.?
According to the study, the most vulnerable areas include the east-facing shores of Greenland and Canada¡¯s western Arctic, as well as the aforementioned Beaufort Sea.?
Merc¨¨ Casas-Prat, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada's (ECCC) Climate Research Division and the lead author of the study states, "It increases the risk of flooding and erosion. It increases drastically almost everywhere. This can have a direct impact to the communities that live close to the shoreline."