Global Warming Causes Expansion in Antarctic Sea Ice

Global warming has caused an increase in sea ice in Antarctica, and the increase in sea ice significantly affects the temperature in the Southern Oceans, reports Nature World News.

The report has been published in Nature Geoscience and was conducted by researchers at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.

"The paradox is that global warming leads to more cooling and more sea ice around Antarctica," Richard Bintanja, a climate researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in Utrecht, was quoted as saying in Nature.

According to Bintanja and his colleagues, the excess melting of sea ice in the Antarctica ice sheet (i.e., 250 gigatonnes) yearly is the main reason for the expansion of sea ice in the region.

On the other hand, a study has shown how global warming may cause the Arctic region to become greener.

Researchers reached the conclusion based on data collected from the satellite and buoys of ocean temperature and salinity from 1985-2010. They then compared the data with the output of global climate model. The melted water formed a freshwater cap that caused the expansion of sea ice.

They have also come up with other possible explanations.

"Against the background of global climate warming, the expansion of Antarctic sea ice is an exceptional feature, which seems to be associated with decreasing sea surface temperatures in the Southern Ocean. We predict that this mechanism will be a sizable contributor to the factors that regionally and seasonally offset greenhouse warming and the associated sea ice retreat," the researchers were quoted as saying in Stuff.