Antartic Ice cap is Growing still

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away | World News | News.com.au

Huh....so one is melting and one is growing....now lets find some raw data and crunch numbers to see if overall there is more melt in the artic than freezing in the antartic.

Any takers on that?

 

[Old Rocks]

Sure

Thu, 2008-01-24 15:07 — webmaster
Source: The Australian, Leigh Dayton, Science writer, January 15, 2008

New data from the NASA GRACE mission satellite shows that ice melt at the edges of the Antarctic is accelerating, and outpacing the build-up of snow in the interior.

Antarctica's ice melting faster

Below is an excerpt from this press story:

"THE most comprehensive study to date of Antarctica's ice confirms growing concern that the ice cap is melting faster than predicted.

The implications are that the global sea level will rise faster than expected, while a huge influx of freshwater into the salty oceans could alter ocean currents.

Antarctica holds 90 per cent of Earth's ice.

According to the new findings, snowfall is topping up ice in the continent's interior and East Antarctic has held its own. But West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula lost nearly 200 billion tonnes of ice in 2006 alone.

That is 75 per cent more than losses in 1996 and the equivalent of a global sea level rise of more than half a millimetre, claim international scientists led by NASA geoscientist Eric Rignot, also with the University of California, Irvine (UCI).

"Losses are concentrated along narrow channels occupied by outlet glaciers and are caused by ongoing and past glacier acceleration," the team wrote in the online edition of Nature Geoscience.

They based their conclusions on satellite data obtained in 1996, 2000 and 2006.

According to Dr Rignot, the results showed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had underestimated the impact of polar melting in its predictions of possible sea level rises next century.

"Each time I look at some new data, I am astonished," he said.

Until now, it has been unclear whether snowfall in the interior kept pace with coastal melting, in terms of the overall mass of Antarctic ice.

But for Hobart glaciologist Ian Allison - with the Australian Antarctic Division and the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre - the new findings settle the matter.

"This work suggests that the ice flow is accelerating," Dr Allison said.

"It's worrying because ... the changes are happening due to processes we don't understand."

Dr Allison said the findings confirmed previous work, much by Dr Rignot and another UCI scientist Isabella Velicogna.

It also fits with observations that the break-up in 1995 and 2002 of two sections of the Larsen ice shelf, in the West Antarctic ice sheet, was sped up by the melting of glaciers that were behind it."

Antarctica's ice melting faster | lightblueline

 

[Old Rocks]

Ice melting across globe at accelerating rate, NASA says
Between 1.5 trillion and 2 trillion tons of ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska has melted at an accelerating rate since 2003, according to NASA scientists, in the latest signs of what they say is global warming.

Using new satellite technology that measures changes in mass in mountain glaciers and ice sheets, NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke concluded that the losses amounted to enough water to fill the Chesapeake Bay 21 times.
"The ice tells us in a very real way how the climate is changing," said Luthcke, who will present his findings this week at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, California.

View original post here Ice melting across globe at accelerating rate, NASA says - CNN.com

Melting Ice Nasa | Ice Melting Across Globe At Accelerating Rate, NASA Says - Why Do Glaciers Move - Zimbio

 

[k2skier]

Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away | World News | News.com.au

Huh....so one is melting and one is growing....now lets find some raw data and crunch numbers to see if overall there is more melt in the artic than freezing in the antartic.

Any takers on that?

It all depends on which 2 years you want to cherry pick, but overall, yes Antarctica has held steady on square mile of ice coverage in the last 30 years.

here's what one guy has to say about the article you posted;

Michael Chiu of Fall City, WA. USA Posted at 2:01am April 21, 2009
I think opinions expressed civilly are heard more clearly. The expansion of sea ice in the southern polar region is not conflicting with the theory of global warming. This phenomena was predicted in models in 2005 (see Science Daily 6/30/05) and illlustrates the asymmetry of global warming affect (see www.artic.atmos.uiuc ). Caution should be exercised when reading short media accounts of complex scientific matters. One should NEVER reach a conclusion based upon one event, in one geographical location, at one point in time. To do so would be grasping at convenient truths!! The discussion is not if global warming is occurring but rather causation and effect. Politicians and media outlets do not help clarify the causation question with their spin. Neither does vehement attacks and snipes upon each other.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away | World News | News.com.au

Huh....so one is melting and one is growing....now lets find some raw data and crunch numbers to see if overall there is more melt in the artic than freezing in the antartic.

Any takers on that?

It all depends on which 2 years you want to cherry pick, but overall, yes Antarctica has held steady on square mile of ice coverage in the last 30 years.

I just checked that out, thanks for the heads up on the antartics overal remaining unchanged. over 30 years, overall, it has not melted or grown

 

[Old Rocks]

It has held steady on the square miles of ice coverage. But many billions of tons of ice have melted, and that melt is accelerating. Meanwhile, the north polar ice is melting fast, and may be completely gone during part of the summer by 2030.

When enough ice has melted in Antarctica, then you will see the square mileage shrink as ground is exposed. And that will create an even greater feedback cyle.

 

[code1211]

Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away | World News | News.com.au

Huh....so one is melting and one is growing....now lets find some raw data and crunch numbers to see if overall there is more melt in the artic than freezing in the antartic.

Any takers on that?

It all depends on which 2 years you want to cherry pick, but overall, yes Antarctica has held steady on square mile of ice coverage in the last 30 years.

I just checked that out, thanks for the heads up on the antartics overal remaining unchanged. over 30 years, overall, it has not melted or grown

In one article I read, though, the average temperature at the South pole has risen to -57 from -60. Either one is cold enough to kill you if... If nothing. It's cold enough to kill you.

The water tha flows from elsewhere to touch the ice that is being pushed into the water by more ice is warm enough to melt ice. Obviously. It's water. Even Ice Water is pretty hot compared to the air temps down there.

I've been thinking that this would be a good place to build a prison for the Gitmo detainees that would be more humane.

 

[DiveCon]

It has held steady on the square miles of ice coverage. But many billions of tons of ice have melted, and that melt is accelerating. Meanwhile, the north polar ice is melting fast, and may be completely gone during part of the summer by 2030.

When enough ice has melted in Antarctica, then you will see the square mileage shrink as ground is exposed. And that will create an even greater feedback cyle.

so, what year should we expect to see open ground in Antarctica?

 

[KittenKoder]

It has held steady on the square miles of ice coverage. But many billions of tons of ice have melted, and that melt is accelerating. Meanwhile, the north polar ice is melting fast, and may be completely gone during part of the summer by 2030.

When enough ice has melted in Antarctica, then you will see the square mileage shrink as ground is exposed. And that will create an even greater feedback cyle.

Alright, since your buttplug won't answer I ask this of you:

What is the purpose of large bodies of ice in the world? What purpose do they serve to nature since everything natural has a purpose and reason.

 

[code1211]

It has held steady on the square miles of ice coverage. But many billions of tons of ice have melted, and that melt is accelerating. Meanwhile, the north polar ice is melting fast, and may be completely gone during part of the summer by 2030.

When enough ice has melted in Antarctica, then you will see the square mileage shrink as ground is exposed. And that will create an even greater feedback cyle.

There three pretty distinct areas of the antarctic in terms of climate: The interior, the coast and the Western penninsula.

What you are describing is occurring mostly on the western penninsula. Warming is probably occurring in the Antarctic, but with the very few measuring stations, it's a little difficult to make a case either way.

As far as you prediction of dire consequence, if the ice is not touching water, it's not very likely that it will permanently melt anytime soon at about -60 degrees.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

And yet for all the claims of all this HUGE melting, the sea level has not raised more then normal yet. Why aren't I under water yet?

 

[elvis]

And yet for all the claims of all this HUGE melting, the sea level has not raised more then normal yet. Why aren't I under water yet?

Have faith in Gore and do as he says.

 

[KittenKoder]

And yet for all the claims of all this HUGE melting, the sea level has not raised more then normal yet. Why aren't I under water yet?

Have faith in Gore and do as he says.

Do not question our lord Gore! He is the master of our climate and will rain lightening apon the heads of those who doubt his "Global Warming" doctrine!

 

[Big Black Dog]

First it's melting. Then it's growing. Which is it people???? I've already started to build my ark just in case it really melts. So, what do I do with all of this lumber now?

 

[DiveCon]

First it's melting. Then it's growing. Which is it people???? I've already started to build my ark just in case it really melts. So, what do I do with all of this lumber now?

build a nice house

 

[Old Rocks]

So what do our results show? Essentially, that the big picture of Antarctic climate change in the latter part of the 20th century has been largely overlooked. It is well known that it has been warming on the Antarctic Peninsula, probably for the last 100 years (measurements begin at the sub-Antarctic Island of Orcadas in 1901 and show a nearly monotonic warming trend). And yes, East Antarctica cooled over the 1980s and 1990s (though not, in our results, at a statistically significant rate). But West Antarctica, which no one really has paid much attention to (as far as temperature changes are concerned), has been warming rapidly for at least the last 50 years.

Why West Antarctica is warming is just beginning to be explored, but in our paper we argue that it basically has to do enhanced meridional flow — there is more warm air reaching West Antarctica from farther north (that is, from warmer, lower latitudes). In the parlance of statistical climatology, the “zonal wave 3 pattern” has increased (see Raphael, GRL 2004). Something that goes along with this change in atmospheric circulation is reduced sea ice in the region (while sea ice in Antarctica has been increasing on average, there have been significant declines off the West Antarctic coast for the last 25 years, and probably longer). And in fact this is self reinforcing (less sea ice, warmer water, rising air, lower pressure, enhanced storminess).

The obvious question, of course, is whether those changes in circulation are themselves simply “natural variability” or whether they are forced — that is, resulting from changes in greenhouse gases. There will no doubt be a flurry of papers that follow ours, to address that very question. A recent paper in Nature Geosciences by Gillet et al. examined trends in temperatures in the both Antarctic and the Arctic, and concluded that “temperature changes in both … regions can be attributed to human activity.” Unfortunately our results weren’t available in time to be made use of in that paper. But we suspect it will be straightforward to do an update of that work that does incorporate our results, and we look forward to seeing that happen.

RealClimate: State of Antarctica: red or blue?

 

[code1211]

First it's melting. Then it's growing. Which is it people???? I've already started to build my ark just in case it really melts. So, what do I do with all of this lumber now?

I say finish the ark. Put it in the yard right next to the fall out shelter.