- Alfred Wegener Institute, Atmospheric physics, Bremerhaven, Germany (felix.pithan@awi.de)
When the world warms, the cold part of the world over water warms fastest. In the last three times ten years, this coldest parts has warmed three to four times faster than the whole world. It is warming faster because when it warms, there is more water instead of ice. Water becomes more warm than ice when the sun is up because it is darker, and the sun warms dark things more than bright things. But the cold part warms most when the sun is down, because the water has warmed when the sun was up, and now the water needs to cool before it can become ice again. The cold part also warms more when the sun is down because here, the air warms most near the water. In the warm part of the world, the air warms most further up, close to space, and then the warm goes out to space. We now try to understand if water drops in the sky make the cold part of the world warm faster. When it warms, there are more water drops in the sky instead of bits of ice, and when the sun is down, water drops in the sky warm more than ice does. When we use a computer to find out how the world warms, the computer does not understand well how ice in the sky is different from water in the sky when the sun is down in the cold part of the world. But we sent people there for a year, and they had a box with strong light and other waves that could see the water and ice in the sky. They could also see how water and ice were different. We now also have a box with light and waves that can see ice and water in the sky going around the world in space. This will help us to understand how water and ice in the sky are important for the cold part of the world, and the faster warming of the cold part of the world when then sun is down. Maybe the cold part of the world also warms faster because more warm air and water goes from the warm part of the world to the cold part when the world warms. We use a computer to understand how much warm air goes from the warm part of the world to the cold part, and how much cold air goes back - now and when the world is warmer.
How to cite: Pithan, F.: Why does the cold part of the world with water warm so fast?, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-5663, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-5663, 2026.