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LOS ANGELES - Have you or someone you know mentioned that the days seem to be getting longer? Well, it turns out there might be a scientific reason behind that feeling.
New research suggests that human-caused climate change is not only warming our planet but also subtly altering its spin. This change is leading to longer days and could have significant effects on our daily lives and future technology.
Why are the days getting longer?
Scientists have found that the length of a day on Earth is gradually increasing due to a combination of factors. These include tectonic plate movements, changes in the Earth's inner core rotation, and gravitational effects from the moon. However, human-caused climate change is now recognized as a significant factor contributing to this change.
How does climate change affect the Earth's spin?
According to recent studies published in "PNAS" and "Nature Geoscience," researchers used AI to predict changes in Earth's spin. They found that climate change is currently lengthening days by about 1.3 milliseconds per century. By the end of the 21st century, this could increase to 2.6 milliseconds per century, making climate change the biggest influence on Earth's rotation.
Additionally, NASA-funded research highlights that the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, along with the depletion of groundwater, is redistributing mass on the planet. This redistribution causes Earth to wobble and its rotation to slow down. Over the past 120 years, the planet’s spin axis has meandered by about 30 feet (10 meters).
Global warming has accelerated the rate of ice loss from polar regions, particularly Greenland and Antarctica, resulting in rising sea levels. The extra water accumulates near the equator, causing Earth to bulge slightly. This redistribution of mass slows the planet's rotation, similar to how a figure skater slows down by extending their arms.
What are the potential impacts of longer days?
The lengthening of Earth's days could lead to the introduction of negative leap seconds, where a second is occasionally removed from our clocks to align with the longer days. This change could affect timekeeping in computers and smartphones. Additionally, the altered rotation may impact space travel, requiring adjustments in navigation for space missions.
How does this affect the Earth's axis?
The redistribution of water due to melting polar ice is also shifting Earth's axis of rotation. This movement causes the magnetic poles to wobble farther from the axis each year. The research indicates this effect has been ongoing for at least three decades and may worsen.
"We humans have a greater impact on our planet than we realize," said Benedikt Soja, a geodesist at ETH Zurich and co-author of the studies, in an interview with Live Science. "This naturally places great responsibility on us for the future of our planet."