Global Warming Is Causing The Antarctic Ice Mass To Increase In Size (Or Not -- It Might Be Due To The Wind)

Okay, I hope we are all in agreement that in spite of whatever the global temperature has been doing over the past couple of decades, the Antarctic continent of ice is expanding. It's been reported several times on the Million Dollar Way, thank you. But first, you have to accept that. If you can't accept that, then we really can't go any farther.

Back in September, 2013, I devoted a stand-alone post to the phenomenon.

Scientists have observed this phenomenon for quite some time and have not been able to explain it. Why is the Antarctic expanding, while the Arctic is shrinking?

Well, scientists, reporting in the journal Nature Geoscience, now have an explanation:

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.

That's interesting: the cool surface waters then re-freeze more easily during the southern hemisphere's Autumn and Winter.Who wudda thought?

But, it turns out, there are other explanations, also; explanations not related to climate change.

Whatever. I'm waiting for scientists to explain how global warming resulted in the coldest March (2013) on record, since 1996. Another inconvenient truth.