Earth Changes

Growth in Antarctic sea ice sets new record, pierces 20 million square kilometer barrier

Anthony Watts
Watts Up With That
Sat, 20 Sep 2014 20:02 UTC

Sunshinehours reports that the Antarctic Sea Ice Extent for September 19th, 2014 is 20.11297 million square kilometers, which is 1,535,000 sq km above the 1981-2010 climatological mean.

Another 58,000 sq km. was added since yesterday, making it the 7th All-Time Record in 7 Days.

This new record is 610,000 sq km higher than the previous daily record. The red line represents 2014 data.

Data source

NSIDC concurs:

A look at the data presented by NSIDC as it would be from space if there were no clouds:

More data on the WUWT Sea Ice page

UPDATE: Andres Valencia reports in comments:

The University of Bremen (The new satellite "Shizuku", AMSR2 sensor) will have to rescale their plots:

Source

Comment: With so much focus on the "loss" of Arctic sea ice, not many people are looking southward. The Antarctic has as much affect on climate as the more familiar Arctic. It is also just as sensitive to variations in solar radiation, increased aerosols from volcanic eruptions and other sources, and increased atmospheric loading of cosmic dust. Though the mechanism is not well understood, it seems some of the more dramatic effects of global cooling are becoming evident here first.

Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection

Reader Comments

rbateman1 · 2014-09-21T01:05:51Z

Add this

This link [Link] should be added to complete the picture.
There is more total volume of Antarctic Sea Ice now than we have ever measured.
[Link] this is an extra 1.7 m sq km of sea ice spread out to a record extent.
While the air mass is thermally isolated (only escaping in rare outbursts), the Sea Ice is not.
The Southern Oceans will melt it an mix with it, lowering the ocean temps.
Another effect of the record Sea Ice Extent is albedo. More sunlight (sunrise at the south pole is tomorrow) is reflected back into space.
Compound that with a weakened output Sun.
While the full mechanism is not understood, the process certainly is plain enough to see.
One more thing: pile up enough ice down there and the landmass will sink. What goes down must come up to satisfy things bein in balance (equilibrium). So, which landmass gets popped up?
If it's in the N. Hemisphere, the Climate is in Ice Age gear.

Ruth · 2014-09-22T02:56:36Z

It would be interesting to ask if the behaviour of ice build up is different on a land mass compared to when it occurs on an ocean. As Antarctica is on a land mass, surely ice build up doesn't automatically have to be outwards, but it could be upwards too?

Not all the ice in the Arctic is on land - how much or how little of it is or is not, I don't know.