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Listen in on why European and North American winters may be getting colder

This week saw BBC Radio 4’s Material World dedicate almost the first half of its weekly science update to Earth and environmental research.

First up was Martin Siegert of the University of Edinburgh, UK, speaking on the recent breakthrough into Antarctica’s underground Lake Vostok by a Russian team drilling through the ice. Siegert is leading a rival group investigating Lake Ellsworth on the other side of the continent.

Next was Judah Cohen from Atmospheric and Environmental Research, US, talking about his paper in Environmental Research Letters on the link between Arctic warming and colder winters in North America and Europe. According to Cohen, higher temperatures in the Arctic have melted sea ice, enabling more moisture to enter the atmosphere. In turn this tends to increase snow cover in Siberia, which appears to be associated with colder temperatures in eastern North America and northern Eurasia.

Listen in to the show to find out more, it should be accessible worldwide. The cold winters interview starts after 7 minutes 33 seconds. If you carry on listening you can hear a discussion on whether Freud was a scientist and news of the launch of LARES, the Laser Relativity Satellite that will test Einstein’s theory of gravity.

You can also read a news story about Cohen’s paper.

Posted by Liz Kalaugher on February 10, 2012 2:59 PM | Permalink