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wanderer

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Cryosphere Today Antarctic Sea Ice Area
« on: June 26, 2013, 05:35:13 PM »
A week ago, the Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice Anomaly was way above normal, today it's "just" 0.571 (million sq. km) above the anomaly from 1979-2008.

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/antarctic.sea.ice.interactive.html

If I didn't miscalculate Global Sea Ice Area would be 20,077 (million sq. km) on day 175, similar to 2010, but above 2007, 2011 and 2012
http://meteomodel.pl/index.php/arcticice

Temperatures are still way above normal http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/map/images/fnl/sfctmpmer_01b.fnl.html


AbruptSLR

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Re: Cryosphere Today Antarctic Sea Ice Area
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2013, 07:17:33 PM »
Wanderer,

I thought that I would post the following 2013 internet summary, stating that according to a Dutch study most of the trend toward greater Antarctic sea ice extent is attributed to the increasing meltwater primarily coming basal ice shelf melting:

"Global warming has led to more ice in the sea around Antarctica and could help insulate the southern hemisphere from atmospheric warming.
A Dutch study says that unlike in the Arctic region, sea ice around Antarctica has expanded at a significant rate since 1985.
Published online in Nature Geoscience, the article suggests cool freshwater from melt beneath the Antarctic ice shelves has insulated offshore sea ice from the warming ocean beneath.
Richard Bintanja of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and colleagues say the Antarctic sea ice expands during southern hemisphere autumn and winter in response to this fresh, cool surface layer that freezes easily.
"Against the background of global climate warming, the expansion of Antarctic sea ice is an exceptional feature, which seems to be associated with decreasing sea surface temperatures in the Southern Ocean," they write.
"We predict that this mechanism will be a sizable contributor to the factors that regionally and seasonally offset greenhouse warming and the associated sea ice retreat."
They say the expanding sea ice may constitute a "feedback" that has the potential to oppose southern hemisphere atmospheric warming and amplify increases in global sea level.
Changes in sea ice can significantly modulate climate change because of its high reflective and strong insulating nature, the paper says."
β€œIt is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson