Antarctic sea ice hit 35-year record high Saturday

[CFLDem]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Tx4obama (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post

Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record large extent for a second straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice is expanding rather than shrinking in a warming world.

On Saturday, the ice extent reached 19.51 million square kilometers, according to data posted on the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site. That number bested record high levels set earlier this month and in 2012 (of 19.48 million square kilometers). Records date back to October 1978.

The increasing ice is especially perplexing since the water beneath the ice has warmed, not cooled.

"The overwhelming evidence is that the Southern Ocean is warming," said Jinlun Zhang, a University of Washington scientist, studying Antarctic ice. "Why would sea ice be increasing? Although the rate of increase is small, it is a puzzle to scientists."


Read more: http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/09/23/antarctic-sea-ice-hit-35-year-record-high-saturday/

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TL;DR: Experts puzzled about why environment won't meet their expectations.

[greyl]

1. Your summary of the article is a bit lacking.

Ultimately, it’s apparent the relationship between ozone depletion, climate warming from greenhouse gases, natural variability, and how Antarctic ice responds is all very complicated. In sharp contrast, in the Arctic, there seems to be a relatively straight forward relationship between temperature and ice extent.

Thus, in the Antarctic, we shouldn’t necessarily expect to witness the kind of steep decline in ice that has occurred in the Arctic.

“…the seeming paradox of Antarctic ice increasing while Arctic ice is decreasing is really no paradox at all,” explains Climate Central’s Lemonick. “The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic is land surrounded by ocean. In the Arctic, moreover, you’ve got sea ice decreasing in the summer; at the opposite pole, you’ve got sea ice increasing in the winter. It’s not just an apples-and-oranges comparison: it’s more like comparing apple pie with orange juice.”

[GeorgeGist]

7. This is really quite inane ...

explains Climate Central’s Lemonick. “The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land, while the Antarctic is land surrounded by ocean. In the Arctic, moreover, you’ve got sea ice decreasing in the summer; at the opposite pole, you’ve got sea ice increasing in the winter. It’s not just an apples-and-oranges comparison: it’s more like comparing apple pie with orange juice.”

[arcane1]

2. Interesting, I had no idea how different the south pole is from the north.

Well, never really gave it much thought anyway, but it makes sense.

[nolabels]

4. The world is kind of egg shaped, they say

If you spin a top (which is also egg shaped) the large side always will try to spin away from gravity, thus lowering the small side to the force of gravity. To me that seems to indicate the real top of the world is really the south pole, any idea's

[quadrature]

12. not true. Earth is not egg-shaped.

the 'equivalent sea-level' figure of the Earth differs less than
200 meters (usually less than 50m) at all points,
from a mathematical ellipsoid-of-revolution.
both poles are equally squashed-in.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

16. Oblate Spheriod

I think that is the term

[840high]

3. Very interesting.

[SkatmanRoth]

5. It is ice extent, not ice volume

What is happening is ice is melting from the continent and the fresh water is flowing out into the ocean. The pool of fresh water is less dense that the salt water in the ocean and floats on top, where it freeze at a higher temperature than sea water.

The greater ice extent is a symptom of loss of ice mass.

[GliderGuider]

11. I expect we'll find this to be the case.

We can measure the volume of Arctic ice much more easily by using satellite instruments to measure the height of the ice surface above the water it's floating on.

We are only now getting a reasonable one-time estimate of the volume of Antarctic ice. We don't have a time series of it yet. Extent changes in Antarctic sea ice are insignificant when it comes to global warming. Pointing to its behavior is a classic denier hallmark.

[cosmicone]

14. Precisely n/t

[OnlinePoker]

6. Why a post about a news article from September? n/t

[7962]

9. If I didnt see it in September, its news to me!!

[paleotn]

8. These systems are far more complex than our...

..rudimentary models can predict in the short term. However, in the long term physics is physics and the inevitable is the inevitable, no matter what the Kock brother, wing nuts or moronic climate change deniers think in their tiny little excuses for minds.

[golfguru]

10. The most potent global warming

caused end of last ice age. There were ice glaciers all over the mid-west, several miles thick. All that was melted off. Result was the largest body of fresh water on earth..the Great Lakes.

[AtheistCrusader]

13. We are hyper-fucked if this is because the land ice is migrating faster, or melting faster,

leaving a layer of near-freshwater/dilute seawater that freezes easier.

[Tx4obama]

15. Locking, sorry. OP article from September 23 - is over the LBN 12 hour published time limit

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