The report from the Brits is on the blog. I knew as soon as I read it they were wrong.
Scientists are no different than any other human being on Earth. They are always hoping Earth has an undiscovered secret that proves the climate is going to be okay and the scientists were simply worry warts all along. I think that was at work in the report by the UK scientists.
In Antarctica, continental ice, a growth of sea ice is not a healthy development because it only proves there is more water runoff from the continent and freezing in the circumpolar ocean circulation. There is more runoff because of melting, not freezing.
By Brian Kahn
...A prime of example of said chaos (click here) was the freakishly low sea ice extent in Antarctica in 2016 and 2017. Ice extent crashed hard everywhere, but particularly in the Weddell Sea near the Antarctic Peninsula. Among the oddities of the austral spring and summer those years was a Netherlands-sized hole in the ice known as a polynya.
Now, new findings published in Geophysical Research Letters show the likely cause of the abnormal conditions were intense, warm winds, which also helped usher in powerful storms that wiped out icepack. The results could help researchers refine their understanding of what the future holds, as temperatures rise and further destroy ice and the ecosystems it supports.
Antarctic sea ice is the oddball of polar ice. The Arctic’s ice has shown a steep decline as the planet has warmed, owing to its location in a largely enclosed ocean. In comparison, the Antarctic’s sea ice extends out from a continent and is much more dynamic. In the years before the huge 2016 crash to a record low, it was at a record high.
From 2015 to 2016, Antarctic sea ice extent dropped a staggering 463,322 square miles (1.2 million square kilometers)—an area twice the size of France. The new research used satellites as well as data collected from autonomous ocean-faring floats to figure out what happened to drive the drop. The findings show the first blow to the ice came in September, when the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Weddell Sea whipped through the region. Relatively warm, gusty winds lashed icepack and broke it up to kickstart melt season....
