Tuesday, February 02, 2021

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Coming Back

It appears that the big dip we saw in Antarctic sea ice extent starting in 2015 may have just been a temporarily nonlinearity, or something related to the monster 2015-16 El Nino, or god's fury, because the ice is coming back:


where the data is from the NSIDC. So curb your enthusiasm. Maybe we have to resort again -- now that the data is again against us, how's that for playing the odds again, ha ha -- looking at the prediction of increased Antarctic sea ice with increasing CO2 and global warming by Manabe et al in 1991:

"Transient Responses of a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Model to Gradual Changes of Atmospheric CO2: Annual Mean Response," S Manabe et al, J Climate v4, Aug 1991 p785-818. (pg 795 in particular)

"The increased supply of fresh surface water from both land-bound ice melt and increased precipitation increases the halocline gradient, which reduces upwelling of warmer bottom waters, decreasing sea surface temperature, and thus leading to more sea ice."


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In any case, the Antarctic sea ice looks to be coming back.

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