Concern that the Arctic Ocean is becoming massively less salty due to its ice cap melting - which could have knock-on consequences for the planet's climate - is unfounded, NASA scientists have said.
Arctic freshening not due to ice melt after all, says NASA ? The Register
Good lord, bigshthd, are you so retarded that you imagine that this factoid has anything to do with the topic? LOL.
We talking about the disappearance of
millions of square kilometers of Arctic ice cover over the last 30 years or so. Changes in the salinity of the ocean waters has nothing to do with that or with the changes in atmospheric circulation that is producing the cold waves in Europe.
In September of 2011, when Arctic sea ice is at its minimum, the ice cover was 2.38 million square kilometers (919,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average minimum. The minimum ice extent in 2011 was very close to 2007, the lowest ice extent on record, and indeed some other research groups place 2011 as the lowest on record. The National Snow and Ice Data Center regards the 2011 minimum as a close second to the record 2007 minimum.
There is a continent about the size of Australia underneath all this ice; the ice sheet sitting on top averages at a little over 2 kilometer (1.2 miles) thick. If all of this ice melted, it would raise global sea level by about 60 meter (197 feet).
But little, if any, surface warming is occurring over East Antarctica.
NASA - Is Antarctica Melting?
What does this off topic stuff have to do with either the cold weather in Europe or the increase in record high temperatures in the US, moron. Are you grasping at straws again?
So there is little surface warming over East Antarctica. So what? It is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet that is melting fast and raising sea levels.
From the NASA article you cited:
The continent of Antarctica has been losing more than 100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice per year since 2002.