Swiss Researchers: "Due to Global Warming... The Length of a Day Is Increasing"

"Greenland Glacier Melting Slows Earth's Rotation Speed"

A study has found that the length of a day is increasing faster and faster due to global warming.

On the 15th (local time), according to the British daily The Guardian, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich published their findings on the impact of climate change on Earth's rotation speed in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

According to the study, the water from melting glaciers affects the rotation speed, and the length of a day has increased by 1.3 ms (milliseconds, one-thousandth of a second) over 100 years since 2000. Previously, from 1900 to 2000, the length of a day increased by 0.3 to 1.0 ms over 100 years.

Glacier. Photo by Pixabay

The researchers explained that the melted water from glaciers near Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland increases seawater near the equator, which slows down the Earth's rotation speed. Changes in Earth's surface seawater volume, such as tidal changes caused by the Moon's gravitational pull, affect Earth's rotation speed. Since 2000, as more glaciers have melted due to global warming, the rotation speed has slowed further, making the day longer. The researchers predicted that if greenhouse gas emissions continue as they are, the length of a day will increase by 2.6 ms over 100 years starting from 2100.

The change in the length of a day due to global warming is only on the order of one-thousandth of a second. However, the researchers warned that the impact on human life could be significant. It could affect the precision of computer systems including Global Positioning System (GPS) and financial transactions that rely on accurate timing.

Benedict Soya, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich who participated in the study, said, "This has occurred in just 100 to 200 years due to carbon emissions," and added, "We confirmed that global warming not only causes regional phenomena such as temperature rise but also affects Earth's fundamental function of rotation."