Brief communication: Increasing shortwave absorption over the Arctic Ocean is not balanced by trends in the Antarctic

On the basis of a new, consistent, long-term observational satellite dataset we show that, despite the observed increase of sea ice extent in the Antarctic, absorption of solar shortwave radiation in the Southern Ocean poleward of 60° latitude is not decreasing. The observations hence show that the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Cryosphere
Main Authors: C. Katlein, S. Hendricks, J. Key
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2017
Subjects:
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Geology
QE1-996.5
Arctic
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
Arctic Ocean
Antarc*
Sea ice
The Cryosphere
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2111-2017
https://doaj.org/article/fa7538f45d6f4a9fa1effa7a6b25cd9e
Description
Summary:On the basis of a new, consistent, long-term observational satellite dataset we show that, despite the observed increase of sea ice extent in the Antarctic, absorption of solar shortwave radiation in the Southern Ocean poleward of 60° latitude is not decreasing. The observations hence show that the small increase in Antarctic sea ice extent does not compensate for the combined effect of retreating Arctic sea ice and changes in cloud cover, which both result in a total increase in solar shortwave energy deposited into the polar oceans.

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