NASA: Moon oscillation and climate change represent a double whammy by doubling floods and coastal inundation

A new study by NASA has found that rising tides, combined with rising sea levels, will cause US coasts to experience a "dramatic" rise in flooding in the coming decades.

Scientists expect that there will be a "rapid" increase in the frequency of high-tidal flooding in several parts of the United States by the mid-2030s, according to the report published last June in the journal Nature Climate Change. A NASA team specializing in sea level change at the University of Hawaii, USA.

The increase in flooding is partly due to the moon's "wobbles" (Shutterstock)

A double whammy for coastal cities

And one of the authors of the study, William Sweet, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that “we are going to face a kind of “double whammy,” which means Coastal cities - unless they adapt and fortify - are likely to experience greater flooding than expected."

The Washington Post report explained that the reason for the increased flooding is partly due to the moon's "wobbles," where the moon's angle relative to the equator changes over time as it orbits the Earth.

This phenomenon, which extends over a period of 18.6 years, affects the movement of the tides.

Half of this cycle alters the tides, making the high tides low and the high tides, and the second half of the cycle making them larger than before.

The study concluded that it is this latter part, along with sea level rise caused by climate change, that will lead to greater flooding in the next two decades.

What happens is like a person thumps his arms in the water in a bathtub (Reuters)

Bathtub will overflow

To explain this phenomenon, Gary Mitchum, associate dean in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of South Florida and one of the authors of the study, likened what happens to a person who thumps his arms in the water in a bathtub, which may not cause the water from the basin to overflow immediately, but there is a possibility of it rising And it overflows when more water is added.

"The small wave is the tide and the amount of water in the bathtub is sea level rise," Mitchum said. "The two are absolutely unrelated, but the combination of them means that you're likely to overflow your bathtub more often when you have sea level rise And you have a bigger wave."

According to the study, the most noticeable effects of this combination will appear during the mid-30s to the forties, when the lunar cycle changes again, however, we are already beginning to feel some of the effects.

"It's already happening now, and the situation is likely to continue to deteriorate over time," says Sweet, the scientist involved in the study.

Flooding caused by tidal movement is increasing (NASA)

Floods to rise and rise

The Washington Post report notes that tidal water intrusion is often seen as a nuisance and occurs regularly in coastal cities, and a study published by NASA on July 7 indicates that tidal flooding is increasing.

According to the newspaper's report, some cities along the coasts of the southeast Atlantic and the Gulf recorded record numbers for the amount of high floods in the period between May 2020 to April 2021.

Cities including Corpus Christi and Galveston in Texas, and St. Louis-Waveland Bay in Mississippi experienced more than 20 days of flooding, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Also, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report, a slight increase in flooding caused by high tides is a trend that is expected to continue, and by 2030, such floods are expected to last 7 to 15 days nationwide, and it is estimated that they may It reaches an average of 25 to 75 days of flooding a year after two decades.

Climate change is an additional burden as the moon wobbles and gives a double whammy to the coasts (Shutterstock)

More than a simple inconvenience

Phil Thompson, director of the Sea Level Center at the University of Hawaii who was also involved in the study, believes that these floods will present a much greater challenge than a simple inconvenience.

"In some cases, a company can have a car park flooding 10 or 15 times a month," says Thompson.

"It's going to have a huge economic impact on whoever is exposed to it," he says. "It's actually the cumulative effect of many small issues that seem minor, but when a minor problem occurs chronically, it becomes a bigger problem."

Although the outlook looks bleak — researchers say there is not much that can be done to change their forecast for the next few years — there are some actions that can be taken, says Ben Hamlington, head of the NASA Sea Level Change Team. .

In the short term, local communities will have to adapt to changing environmental conditions and reduce the effects of sea level rise, according to Hamlington, who believes that, in the long term, the global community must find ways to mitigate climate change.

"The goal should be to try to limit global warming and keep the level of sea level rise (at the limit) that we think is as low as possible," Hamlington adds.