Sustained ocean changes contributed to sudden Antarctic sea ice retreat in late 2016

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Other Authors: Meehl, Gerald A. (author), Arblaster, Julie M. (author), Chung, Christine T. Y. (author), Holland, Marika M. (author), DuVivier, Alice (author), Thompson, LuAnne (author), Yang, Dongxia (author), Bitz, Cecilia M. (author)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Antarctic; Curl; Indian; Pacific; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07865-9

After nearly three decades of observed increasing trends of Antarctic sea ice extent, in September-October-November 2016, there was a dramatic decrease. Here we document factors that contributed to that decrease. An atmosphere-only model with a specified positive convective heating anomaly in the ea...