Abstract

As the world's ice diminishes in the face of climate change - from the dramatic decline in Arctic sea ice, to thinning at the margins of both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, to retreating mountain glaciers the world over - Antarctic sea ice presents something of a paradox. The trend in total sea ice extent in the Antarctic has remained steady, or even increased slightly, over the past three decades, confounding climate model predictions showing moderate to strong declines. This apparent intransigence masks dramatic regional trends; declines in sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea region that rival the high-profile decline in the Arctic have been matched by opposing increases in the Ross Sea. Much of the explanation lies in the unique nature of the Antarctic sea ice zone. Its position surrounding the continent and exposure to the high-energy wind and wave fields of the open Southern Ocean shape both its properties and its connection to the atmosphere and ocean in ways very different from the Arctic. Sea ice extent and variability are strongly driven by large-scale climate variability patterns such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode. Because many of these patterns have opposing effects in different regions around the continent, decreases in one region are often accompanied by similar, opposing increases in another. Yet, the failure of climate models to capture either the overall or regional behavior also reflects, in part, a poor understanding of sea ice processes. Considerable insight has been gained into the nature of these processes over the past several decades through field expeditions aboard icebreakers. However, much remains to be discovered about the nature of Antarctic sea ice; its connections with the ocean, atmosphere, and ecosystem; and its complex response to present and future climate change.

Highlights

  • Antarctic has remained steady, or even increased slightly, over the past three decades, sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is largely confounding climate model predictions showing moderate to strong declines

  • Bellingshausen Sea region that rival the high-profile decline in the Arctic have been sea ice is bounded to the south by the matched by opposing increases in the Ross Sea

  • Sea ice extent and variability are strongly driven by 60°–70°S, as compared to 70°–90°N in large-scale climate variability patterns such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Arctic)

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Summary

Around the unbounded Southern

Earth (e.g., Perovich, 2011). A “canary in to call into doubt the predictive power. The nature of the sea ice cover is the coal mine,” this thin, icy veneer over of climate models. Seasonal ice thickness is limited by the high ocean heat flux from the relatively warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) that pervades the subsurface waters of the Southern Ocean (Martinson and Iannuzi, 1998). These factors determine both the response of sea ice to climate change and variability and its impact on the atmosphere, ocean, and polar ecosystem. 30 cnrm-cm csiro-mk0 giss-e2-r hadgem2-cc hadgem2-es inmcm ipsl-cm5a-lr miroc-esm-chem miroc-esm miroc mpi-esm-lr mri-cgcm noresm1-m Ensemble Observed

Model Trends in Extent
Amundsen Sea
Day of Year
Findings
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