Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
Last year the antartic was only down 3% or 4% off its 1980 base line for ice coverage after being down what, 10 or 12%. I don't remember what the peak was.
What happens when the ice coverage exceeds 1980 levels?
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We had a peak of Antarctic ice area in 2014. We are now seeing ice coverage that is much less than the 1980 level.
This is consistent with how we understand climate change is working. There is a lot more evaporation around the world on average, and that led to more snowfall in Antarctica. But now, the warming in the summer in the southern hemisphere is melting it faster - MUCH faster than it is accumulating. One of the new effects that we know more about is the amount of melting caused by warmer water under the floating portion of glaciers - and with sea level rise, more ice is lifted, and is then exposed to the warmer water.
This is an amplification feedback that we had underestimated before, and now with GRACE and other data, we see that the Antarctic ice has begun to collapse; as the Arctic ice has been for several decades.