Translated by Google from this press release in German at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany:
Never so much sea ice at Antarctica in the last 30 years
In light of global warming, it seems paradoxical that the sea ice cover of the Southern Ocean has covered a larger area in the past month than in the last decades. Only in the mid-70s was observed a similar expansion.
- Average sea ice extent in September (1973-2013) with trend line
- Seasonal variability of sea ice extent (as at 13.10.2013)
The means were 19.48 million in September 2013 square kilometers, an area once covered more than 50 times larger than Germany with sea ice. The absolute maximum of 19.65 million square kilometers was reached on 18 of September. Although this maximum in the ice-covered surface can not be equated with a maximum of the total volume or mass, suggest that sea ice physicist Marcel Nicolaus and Stefan Hendricks from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) “This winter there is in Antarctica as much ice as long gone, if it has ever been since the beginning of the regular satellite observations ever so much sea ice.”
To be able to make such statements in certain future, the researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute is currently also the thickness of sea ice in the Antarctic work together with colleagues from different institutions that they can derive from satellite observations. In the Arctic, it has recently become possible, although there are significant differences between Arctic and Antarctic. The snow is thick, inhomogeneous and does not melt completely in summer. In addition, sea ice is formed at the top, a phenomenon that is encountered less frequently in the Arctic. Then there can also be calculated from the thickness and extent of sea ice volume in the future.
- Minimum sea ice concentration on 22 February 2013
- Sea ice concentration maximum at 18 September 2013
The ice-covered area of the Antarctic Ocean grows each year by its minimum at the end of the Antarctic summer (February) of three to four million square kilometers on a multiple (approximately five to six times as much) to the maximum at the end of winter (September). Here, however, there are big regional differences, so that the Antarctic sea ice to be regarded as really a puzzle of different ice cover and assess.
Although over the last few years an increase in the total ice cover in winter and summer is observed, for example, it takes the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, especially in the summer from clear. While the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed significantly in recent decades, the temperature remained stable in other regions.
These differences and the general increase of sea ice in many areas resulting in large part from changes in the wind that drives the sea ice more apart. On the other hand the temperatures and winds from the Antarctic continent have a strong impact on the sea ice belt around him. These are also differences to the Arctic, which contributes that the sea ice behaves so differently in both polar regions.
To better understand all of these contexts, the AWI has conducted two winter experiments with the research icebreaker Polarstern in the Weddell Sea in recent months. In these expeditions, the scientists have ever encountered thick, compact ice, after which they base their theory of the maximum of the ice mass. In addition to measurements during the trip, a variety of automatic measuring stations was deployed on the sea ice. This now continuously measure the thickness, temperature and movement of sea ice and its snow cover and send their data via satellite to the AWI and other project partners.
Reports, photographs, maps and data of these experiments are here presented and commented. More information is also available on the fact sheet on sea ice as well as the websites of the sea ice physics section available.
Polaris in the polar night of the Antarctic winter (Photo: Stefan Hendricks, AWI)
Automatic measuring station for measuring the snow depth on sea ice (Schneeboje) during the polar night. Applied during the winter experiment (Photo: Sandra Schwegmann, AWI).
=======================================================
Pierre Gosselin at No Tricks Zone has a better translation and some additional commentary here: Stunner: Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute Confirms Antarctic Sea Ice May Have Reached Record VOLUME! – See more at: http://notrickszone.com/#sthash.u6C9QFJw.dpuf
Related articles
- Antarctic Sea Ice Didn’t Get The Memo That It Was Supposed To Melt (wattsupwiththat.com)
- Antarctic sea ice keeps setting new record-high levels – Scientists puzzled (iceagenow.info)
- Claim: winds blamed for Antarctic sea ice approaching record high (wattsupwiththat.com)
- NASA Announces New Record Growth Of Antarctic Sea Ice Extent (oneworldchronicle.com)
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I love reading Gobbledegook.
David, UK says:
October 24, 2013 at 1:25 pm. I love reading gobbledegook.
You’re pretty fair at writing it, too. 🙂
Ten days record ice set down under.
The IPCC torn asunder.
For the Ice does not lie.
Kiss the warming good-bye.
It’s worse than a crime, it’s a blunder.
http://lenbilen.com/2013/10/18/a-new-little-ice-age-is-looming-ten-days-in-new-all-time-record-for-ice-in-the-antartics-a-limerick/
I loved the “German accent” feel to the above sometimes-a-bit-awkward grammar. It was still easily understandable. Fine article. Re: the translation — Pleeece, doh noht chehnch ah teeng. (smile — no, it wasn’t THAT bad, lol). #(:))
So, what is the effect on the tropical waters in terms of water temps?
When will the cooler waters of Antarctica cool the tropics and hence cool the northern polar regions…
This year the Arctic and Antarctic have been in worse condition than we previously thought! This is climate change in action folks and Warmists are looking aghast at this change of climate. 🙂
To paraphrase Jon Stewart, I wonder how the warmists are going to spin that turd.
As this is a science blog, I probably shouldn’t say it, but I’m sensing a period of cooling– I don’t know how long– is in the works. I just feel it in my 65 year old bones. We’ve had the coolest spring, summer and now fall in northern San Diego County since I moved here nine years ago.
Climate models falsely predicted Antarctic sea ice would decline more than Arctic sea ice
http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2013/10/new-paper-shows-climate-models-falsely.html
In this light it is remarkable that the graphs by Cryosphere Today do not show the new record (Sea Ice Page). Only the graph by NSIDC (Antarctic Sea Ice Extent) gave me a hint that something had gone slightly higher than before.
The “translation” is so poor, it is difficult to understand what they are trying to say. But, I think the message is “All of the sea ice, at both poles, has entirely melted, and why our measurements still show ice is a “puzzle”.
I’m sure any mention of this at a warmist site will cause a disdainful sniff, and the remark that the bulk of the ice is decreasing because it’s pushing out into the ocean, causing a larger surface area to be covered. so there has been a net loss of ice, any idiot knows that.
I’ve given up trying to reason with those people.
Antarctic sea ice is the better climate indicator http://landscapesandcycles.net/antarctic-sea-ice–climate-change-indicator.html
Box of Rocks asks “When will the cooler waters of Antarctica cool the tropics and hence cool the northern polar regions” Argo data already shows surface temperatures have been cooling snce 2003 Read Xue. Pielke and Tisdale show tropical cooling is underway…http://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/sea-surface-temperature-trends-as-a-function-of-latitude-bands-by-roger-a-pielke-sr-and-bob-tisdale/
Why didn’t google translate “Germany’s” into “Manhattans?” Isn’t that the standard of measure in American English for ice? The world wants to know how many Manhattan sized icebergs are all clumped together.
Also, we should introduce Polar Bears into Antarctica. Plenty of sea ice.
Hi, Geran! (re: 2:26pm) LOL.
This is mother natures answer to Tenbreths missing heat is “lost in the deep” As the sea ice freezes it pushes out the salt which increases the density of the coldest water that sinks to both the polar areas sea floor and moves out toward the tropics along the bottom.
Any warmer waters in the depth contours of the world oceans is undercut by this twice a year (alternate poles) pumping of coldest densest sea water and the warmer rises in laminar sheets up from the bottom. In the top 200 meters it is further warmed by solar energy, so when it up wells to the surface it is the mid-range temperature water, not the coldest water that comes to the surface.
Declinational solar (annual) and lunar 27.32 day declinational tidal forces help to mix the coldest bottom water from both poles and drive the global circulation of the ocean currents. This several year increase in the Antarctic sea ice, now coupled with the increase in Arctic sea ice production declares as a result a much greater net increase in cold ocean bottom water, going into the system, which as it turns over the volume will show up as a lagged raising of the thermocline boundaries as it accumulates going into the continued slow down of solar magnetic activity.
Interesting times ahead and valuable data to be found, as we learn how it all interacts to give us the climate we end up with.
Funny, Antarctic sea ice has been growing ever since that wiki hack mcconnoli got sacked from the Antarctic survey.
I’ll be surprised if the Beeb’s resident Environment Pessimist Jonathan Amos reports this, because it’s “good” news.
@ur momisugly TimB says:
October 24, 2013 at 3:01 pm
“Also, we should introduce Polar Bears into Antarctica. Plenty of sea ice.”
And plenty of Penguins to feed on.
🙂
(sarc)
But it’s rotten ice.
You must understand,
This is special ice, that will melt when the temperature climbs to -30°C !
In reply to:
Box of Rocks says:
October 24, 2013 at 2:06 pm
So, what is the effect on the tropical waters in terms of water temps?
When will the cooler waters of Antarctica cool the tropics and hence cool the northern polar regions…
William,
http://www.solen.info/solar/images/comparison_recent_cycles.png
The Arctic will also cool, if the reason, the physical cause of the sudden increase in Antarctic sea ice is the sudden slowdown in the solar magnetic cycle. There are cycles of warming and cooling in the paleo record – both hemispheres – that correlate with solar magnetic cycle changes.
The paleo record shows there is cyclic ‘natural’ (William: natural is in quotation marks as the forcing appears to be solar magnetic cycle changes as opposed to natural changes in the internal climate system) warming and cooling of the Antarctic peninsula cooling. The cyclic warming and cooling of the Antarctic peninsula correlates with the amount of sea ice around the Antarctic continent, in a complicated manner as Antarctic ice sheet itself slightly cools when the Greenland Ice Sheet warms as the albedo of the Antarctic ice sheet is slightly higher than low level clouds. The phenomena where the Antarctic ice sheet cools when the Greenland ice warms which is what we what we have observed in the last 50 years is called the polar see-saw which is a bit confusing as the see-saw is only the Greenland Ice sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet. ( See Svensmark’s linked paper for details concerning the Polar see-saw.) There is also cyclic warming and cooling of the Greenland Ice sheet which correlates with Arctic sea cyclic changes.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/davis-and-taylor-wuwt-submission.pdf
Davis and Taylor: “Does the current global warming signal reflect a natural cycle”
…We found 342 natural warming events (NWEs) corresponding to this definition, distributed over the past 250,000 years …. …. The 342 NWEs contained in the Vostok ice core record are divided into low-rate warming events (LRWEs; < 0.74oC/century) and high rate warming events (HRWEs; ≥ 0.74oC /century) (Figure). … ….The current global warming signal is therefore the slowest and among the smallest in comparison with all HRWEs in the Vostok record, although the current warming signal could in the coming decades yet reach the level of past HRWEs for some parameters. The figure shows the most recent 16 HRWEs in the Vostok ice core data during the Holocene, interspersed with a number of LRWEs. …. ….We were delighted to see the paper published in Nature magazine online (August 22, 2012 issue) reporting past climate warming events in the Antarctic similar in amplitude and warming rate to the present global warming signal. The paper, entitled "Recent Antarctic Peninsula warming relative to Holocene climate and ice – shelf history" and authored by Robert Mulvaney and colleagues of the British Antarctic Survey ( Nature , 2012, doi:10.1038/nature11391),reports two recent natural warming cycles, one around 1500 AD and another around 400 AD, measured from isotope (deuterium) concentrations in ice cores bored adjacent to recent breaks in the ice shelf in northeast Antarctica. ….
Greenland ice temperature, last 11,000 years determined from ice core analysis, Richard Alley’s paper. William: As this paper shows there the Greenland Ice data shows that have been 9 warming and cooling periods in the last 11,000 years.
http://www.climate4you.com/images/GISP2%20TemperatureSince10700%20BP%20with%20CO2%20from%20EPICA%20DomeC.gif
The Antarctic climate anomaly and galactic cosmic rays by Henrik Svensmark
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0612145v1
There has been a massive increase in 5 five year ice in the Arctic which indicates the onset of cooling there.
Manitou in sky say paleface and penguin worry heaps when Inuit begin migrate south for summer.
Or was it Gaia?
TimB says:
October 24, 2013 at 3:01 pm
That’s 330,000 Manhattans or 28 Californias take your pick!
I’m worried about the penguins. How much farther do they have to travel now to get food?
Will they survive this plague of ice? Isn’t there anything we can do to save the penguins?
Didn’t Gore do something down there this year? Must have, look at all the cold.