How reversible is sea ice loss?
It is well accepted that increasing atmospheric CO 2 results in global warming, leading to a decline in polar sea ice area. Here, the specific question of whether there is a tipping point in the sea ice cover is investigated. The global climate model HadCM3 is used to map the trajectory of sea ice a...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/6/193/2012/ |
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc12341 2023-05-15T13:36:36+02:00 How reversible is sea ice loss? Ridley, J. K. Lowe, J. A. Hewitt, H. T. 2018-09-27 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/6/193/2012/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/6/193/2012/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 2020-07-20T16:25:54Z It is well accepted that increasing atmospheric CO 2 results in global warming, leading to a decline in polar sea ice area. Here, the specific question of whether there is a tipping point in the sea ice cover is investigated. The global climate model HadCM3 is used to map the trajectory of sea ice area under idealised scenarios. The atmospheric CO 2 is first ramped up to four times pre-industrial levels (4 × CO 2 ), then ramped down to pre-industrial levels. We also examine the impact of stabilising climate at 4 × CO 2 prior to ramping CO 2 down to pre-industrial levels. Against global mean temperature, Arctic sea ice area is reversible, while the Antarctic sea ice shows some asymmetric behaviour – its rate of change slower, with falling temperatures, than its rate of change with rising temperatures. However, we show that the asymmetric behaviour is driven by hemispherical differences in temperature change between transient and stabilisation periods. We find no irreversible behaviour in the sea ice cover. Text Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Global warming Sea ice Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Antarctic Arctic The Antarctic The Cryosphere 6 1 193 198 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
It is well accepted that increasing atmospheric CO 2 results in global warming, leading to a decline in polar sea ice area. Here, the specific question of whether there is a tipping point in the sea ice cover is investigated. The global climate model HadCM3 is used to map the trajectory of sea ice area under idealised scenarios. The atmospheric CO 2 is first ramped up to four times pre-industrial levels (4 × CO 2 ), then ramped down to pre-industrial levels. We also examine the impact of stabilising climate at 4 × CO 2 prior to ramping CO 2 down to pre-industrial levels. Against global mean temperature, Arctic sea ice area is reversible, while the Antarctic sea ice shows some asymmetric behaviour – its rate of change slower, with falling temperatures, than its rate of change with rising temperatures. However, we show that the asymmetric behaviour is driven by hemispherical differences in temperature change between transient and stabilisation periods. We find no irreversible behaviour in the sea ice cover. |
format |
Text |
author |
Ridley, J. K. Lowe, J. A. Hewitt, H. T. |
spellingShingle |
Ridley, J. K. Lowe, J. A. Hewitt, H. T. How reversible is sea ice loss? |
author_facet |
Ridley, J. K. Lowe, J. A. Hewitt, H. T. |
author_sort |
Ridley, J. K. |
title |
How reversible is sea ice loss? |
title_short |
How reversible is sea ice loss? |
title_full |
How reversible is sea ice loss? |
title_fullStr |
How reversible is sea ice loss? |
title_full_unstemmed |
How reversible is sea ice loss? |
title_sort |
how reversible is sea ice loss? |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/6/193/2012/ |
geographic |
Antarctic Arctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Arctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Global warming Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Global warming Sea ice |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/6/193/2012/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-6-193-2012 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
193 |
op_container_end_page |
198 |
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1766081230861762560 |