Antarctic Ice Melt at Lowest Levels in Satellite Era October 9, 2009
Posted by honestclimate in Discussions.Tags: antarctic, climate change, global warming
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Antarctic Ice Melt at Lowest Levels in Satellite Era
World Climate Report
October 6, 2009
Where are the headlines? Where are the press releases? Where is all the attention?
The ice melt across during the Antarctic summer (October-January) of 2008-2009 was the lowest ever recorded in the satellite history.
Such was the finding reported last week by Marco Tedesco and Andrew Monaghan in the journal Geophysical Research Letters:
A 30-year minimum Antarctic snowmelt record occurred during austral summer 2008–2009 according to spaceborne microwave observations for 1980–2009. Strong positive phases of both the El-Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode (SAM) were recorded during the months leading up to and including the 2008–2009 melt season.
Figure 1. Standardized values of the Antarctic snow melt index (October-January) from 1980-2009 (adapted from Tedesco and Monaghan, 2009).
The silence surrounding this publication was deafening.
Read the reest here
Sea ice melting in Arctic remains far worse than normal, but only ranks No. 3 in record books
Bureau News September 17th, 2009 Arctic sea ice melt still heavy, but no record
WASHINGTON — The summer melt of Arctic sea ice wasn’t quite as bad this year as the last two years. But it still ranked as the third biggest melt on record.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced Thursday that the Arctic sea ice reached its annual low last week. Ice extended just shy of 2 million square miles. That’s 620,000 square miles less than the 30-year average.
But there was more ice this September than the record low set in 2007 — about one-third of a million square miles more. Last year ranked No. 2.
Arctic sea ice is important because it helps moderate warmer temperatures elsewhere. Experts blame global warming for the increased melting of sea ice and fear that eventually no sea ice will survive the summer.