THE POLAR ICE COVER - HOW IT IS CHANGING

• Main Author: Josefino C Comiso
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Concepción 2004
• Subjects: Oceanography; GC1-1581; Zoology; QL1-991; Arctic; albedo; Global warming; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/3a22ae3be3354770b4c2fd92f5273b74

Global warming of about 0.5 to 1 ºC during the last century has been observed from meteorological stations around the world and postulated to be caused in part by increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The best regions for detecting the impact of such changes are the polar regions where the signals are supposed to be amplified because of ice-albedo feedbacks. Satellite data reveal that the most remarkable change in the polar regions is in the rapid decline of 9% per decade in the Arctic perennial ice cover which has been observed to be anomalously low in 2002, 2003 and 2004. The sea ice cover in the Bellingshaussen Sea has been observed to be retreating as well, at the rate of 6%/decade. The changes are more modest in the entire Northern Hemisphere with the ice declining at around 2 to 3% per decade only while that in the Southern Hemisphere has been basically constant during the last 25 years