Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice
On the news page of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) there is an article about the possible collapse of the Wilkins Ice Shelf
Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegration Underscores a Warming World Satellite imagery reveals that a 13,680 square kilometer (5,282 square mile) ice shelf has begun to collapse in Antarctica.The article is all very interesting, but I wanted more information since I am not sure why we should care particularly about one ice shelf that is comparitively small. I was surprised to discover that this March has seen the largest increase in Southern Hemisphere sea ice since we started measuring:
So which is it? Is global warming causing BOTH the melting of the Wilkins AND the increase in total Southern Hemisphere Ice? How on earth can the NSIDC justify such a misleading headline on their news page? A better headline would be
"Antarctic Sea Ice increase undermines Warming World"
posted by Adi @ 11:06 AM
5 Comments
5 Comments:
Antarctica is a land mass.
Where do you think all the land ice is going?
How did it get there?
The sea ice melt tracks the land ice melt. The land ice does not drift into the sea as ice but as water (raising sea levels).
http://moregrumbinescience.blogspot.com/2010/03/wuwt-trumpets-result-supporting-climate.html
"This is expected from climate modeling. Nice to see someone else is picking up on this interesting confirmation of our scientific expectation."
See also:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20100108_Is_Antarctica_Melting.html
Do you think it is a good idea to juxtapose the area of seasonal, a few meters thick sea ice and a break-up event at an up to 200/250 meters thick ice shelf?
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