{"60442":{"#nid":"60442","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Resolving the Paradox of the Antarctic Sea Ice","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhile\nArctic sea ice has been diminishing in recent decades, the Antarctic sea ice\nextent has been increasing slightly.\u0026nbsp;\nResearchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology provide an\nexplanation for the seeming paradox of increasing Antarctic sea ice in a\nwarming climate. The paper appears in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of\nthe National Academy of Science the week of August 16, 2010.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\nwanted to understand this apparent paradox so that we can better understand\nwhat might happen to the Antarctic sea ice in the coming century with increased\ngreenhouse warming,\u201d said Jiping Liu, a research scientist in Georgia Tech\u2019s School\nof Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EFor\nthe last half of the 20\u003Csup\u003Eth\u003C\/sup\u003E Century, as the atmosphere warmed, the\nhydrological cycle accelerated and there was more precipitation in the Southern\nOcean surrounding Antarctica.\u0026nbsp; This\nincreased precipitation, mostly in the form of snow, stabilized the upper ocean\nand insulated it from the ocean heat below. This insulating effect reduced the\namount of melting occurring below the sea ice. In addition, snow has a tendency to reflect atmospheric heat away from the\nsea ice, which reduced melting from above.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EHowever,\nthe climate models predict an accelerated warming exceeding natural variability\nwith increased loading of greenhouse gases in the 21\u003Csup\u003Est\u003C\/sup\u003E century. This\nwill likely result in the sea ice melting at a faster rate from both above and\nbelow. Here\u2019s how it works. Increased warming of the atmosphere is expected to\nheat the upper ocean, which will increase the melting of the sea ice from\nbelow. In addition, increased warming will also result in a reduced level of snowfall,\nbut more rain. \u0026nbsp;Because rain\ndoesn\u2019t reflect heat back the way snow does, this will enhance the melting of\nthe Antarctic sea ice from above. \u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur\nfinding raises some interesting possibilities about what we might see in the\nfuture. We may see, on a time scale of decades, a switch in the Antarctic,\nwhere the sea ice extent begins to decrease,\u201d said Judith A. Curry, chair of\nthe School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhile Arctic sea ice has been diminishing in recent decades, the \nAntarctic sea ice extent has been increasing slightly.  Researchers from\n the Georgia Institute of Technology provide an explanation for the \nseeming paradox of increasing Antarctic sea ice in a warming climate.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Models show sea ice in the Antarctic will thin later this century."}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2010-08-16 14:23:32","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:15","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-08-16T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2010-08-16T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1183","name":"Home"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10399","name":"Antarctic"},{"id":"10400","name":"arctic"},{"id":"85","name":"curry"},{"id":"10397","name":"Liu"},{"id":"169620","name":"sea ice"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDavid Terraso\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications and Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-2966\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}