Climate change is expanding Antarctica's sea ice, according to a scientific study in the journal Nature Geoscience. The paradoxical phenomenon is thought to be caused by relatively cold plumes of fresh water derived from melting beneath the Antarctic ice shelves. This melt water has a relatively low density, so it accumulates in the top layer of the ocean. The cool surface waters then re-freeze more easily during Autumn and Winter.
This explains the observed peak in sea ice during these seasons, a team from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in De Bilt says in its peer-reviewed paper. Climate scientists have been intrigued by observations that Antarctic sea ice shows a small but statistically significant expansion of about 1.9% per decade since 1985, while sea ice in the Arctic has been shrinking over past decades.
The researchers from the KNMI suggest the "negative feedback" effect outlined in their study is expected to continue into the future. They tried to reproduce the observed changes in a computer-based climate model. The sea ice expanded during Southern Hemisphere autumn and winter in response to the development of this fresh, cool surface layer, which floated on the denser, warmer salty sea water below. This fresh water is ultimately derived from enhanced melting at the base of the Antarctic ice shelves. "Sea ice around Antarctica is increasing despite the warming global climate," said the study's lead author Richard Bintanja, from the KNMI.
"This is caused by melting of the ice sheets from below," he told the Reuters news agency. But there are other plausible explanations for Antarctic sea-ice expansion. Paul Holland of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) stuck to his findings last year that a shift in winds linked to climate change was blowing ice away from the coast, allowing exposed water in some areas to freeze and make yet more ice.
"The possibility remains that the real increase is the sum of wind-driven and melt water-driven effects, of course. That would be my best guess, with the melt water effect being the smaller of the two," he told the London Science Media Centre.SO.... ER UM... ACCORDING TO THE ALARMISTS.... THE WARMING IS CAUSING MORE FREEZING!?!?
SHEESH.
THE ALARMISTS WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING EXCEPT THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL AND CLIMATE WARMING NOT HAPPENING FOR THE LAST 15-20 YEARS.
THEY ARE SO FULL OF SH*T THEY ARE NO LONGER RATIONAL.
THEIR FAITH IN AGW IS UNFALSIFIABLE.
AND THI PROVES IT'S BULLSH*T.
HERE'S THE TRUTH:
Antarctic summer effect confined to peninsula
Map of Antarctic temperature anomaly From O’Donnell et al’s rebuttal to Steig 2009 – click for a much larger image
From the British Antarctic Survey , at least they didn’t pull a Steig and try to claim the observed effect on the Peninsula affects the entire continent. The peninsula is essentially a different Koppen climate class than the main continent, and is at the whim of changes in ocean currents and the SAM, plus Sea Surface Temperatures.
IOW: AGW = TFBS.
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