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This is Antarctica, the polar opposite of the Arctic. While the North Pole has been losing sea ice over the years, the water nearest the South Pole has been gaining it. Antarctic sea ice hit a record 7.51 million square miles in September. That happened just days after reports of the biggest loss of Arctic sea ice on record. Climate change skeptics have seized on the Antarctic ice to argue that the globe isn't warming and that scientists are ignoring the southern continent because it's not convenient. But scientists say the skeptics are misinterpreting what's happening and why.
Shifts in wind patterns and the giant ozone hole over the Antarctic this time of year both related to human activity are probably behind the increase in ice, experts say. This subtle growth in winter sea ice since scientists began measuring it in 1979 was initially surprising, they say, but makes sense the more it is studied. "A warming world can have complex and sometimes surprising consequences," researcher Ted Maksym said this week from an Australian research vessel surrounded by Antarctic sea ice. He is with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Many experts agree. Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado adds: "It sounds counterintuitive, but the Antarctic is part of the warming as well."
And on a third continent, David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey says that yes, what's happening in Antarctica bears the fingerprints of man-made climate change. "Scientifically the change is nowhere near as substantial as what we see in the Arctic," says NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, an ice expert. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be paying attention to it and shouldn't be talking about it." Sea ice is always melting near one pole while growing around the other. But the overall trend year to year is dramatically less ice in the Arctic and slightly more in the Antarctic. It's most noticeable in September, when northern ice is at its lowest and southern ice at its highest. For over 30 years, the Arctic in September has been losing an average of 5.7 square miles of sea ice for every square mile gained in Antarctica.
Loss of sea ice in the Arctic can affect people in the Northern Hemisphere, causing such things as a higher risk of extreme weather in the U.S. through changes to the jet stream, scientists say. Antarctica's weather peculiarities, on the other hand, don't have much effect on civilization. At well past midnight in Antarctica, where it's about 3 degrees, Maksym describes in a rare ship-to-shore telephone call from the R.V. Aurora Australis what this extra ice means in terms of climate change. And what it's like to be out studying it for two months, with the nearest city 1,500 miles away. "It's only you and the penguins," he says. "It's really a strikingly beautiful and stark landscape. Sometimes it's even an eerie kind of landscape." While the Arctic is open ocean encircled by land, the Antarctic about 1.5 times the size of the U.S. is land circled by ocean, leaving more room for sea ice to spread. That geography makes a dramatic difference in the two polar climates.
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The Totten Glacier is one of the fastest-flowing and largest glaciers in Antarctica, with scientists keen to keep a close eye on how it melts given the enormous amount of water it could potentially unleash. Using artificially created seismic waves that help scientists see through the ice, researchers have discovered that more of the Totten Glacier floats on the ocean than initially thought. “In some locations we thought were grounded, we detected the ocean below indicating that the glacier is in fact floating,” said Paul Winberry from Central Washington University, who spent the summer in Antarctica studying the Totten.
The findings are important, because recent studies have shown that the Totten Glacier’s underbelly is already being eroded by warm sea water flowing hundreds of kilometers inland after passing through underwater “gateways.” As it does, the portion of the glacier resting on water rather than rock increases, accelerating the pace of disintegration. Winberry said more of the glacier floating on a warming ocean could help explain recent periods of accelerated melting. “It also means the Totten might be more sensitive to climate variations in the future,” he added.
Glaciers are huge bodies of dense ice that slowly move down valleys, mountains and slopes under their own weight over many centuries, sculpting the earth below as they go. According to NASA monitoring, between 2002 and 2016, Antarctica lost 125 gigatonnes of ice per year, causing sea levels worldwide to rise by 0.35mm annually.
Team leader Ben Galton-Fenzi, from the Australian Antarctic Division, said the glacier contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by about 3m if it all melted. “Since the 1900s the global sea level has risen by around 20cm and by the end of the century it’s projected to rise by up to 1m or more, but this is subject to high uncertainty, which is why studying glaciers, such as the Totten, is important,” he said.
More of Antarctic glacier floating than thought: scientists - Taipei Times
Something different and something that should make those who are fearing the effects of GW happier, if possible.
Antarctic Sea Ice Sets Another Record
Antarctic Sea Ice Sets Another Record - Forbes
