A shift in Antarctica’s melting trends and slushy Arctic ice pushes warming from changing sea ice toward the upper limits of climate model estimates.
A shift in Antarctica’s melting trends and slushy Arctic ice pushes warming from changing sea ice toward the upper limits of climate model estimates.
As sea ice disappears and grows less reflective, the Arctic has lost around a quarter of its cooling power since 1980, and the world has lost up to 15%, according to new research led by University of Michigan scientists.
Using satellite measurements of cloud cover and the solar radiation reflected by sea ice between 1980 and 2023, the researchers found that the percent decrease in sea ice’s cooling power is about twice as high as the percent decrease in annual average sea ice area in both the Arctic and Antarctic. The added warming impact from this change to sea ice cooling power is toward the higher end of climate model estimates.
“When we use climate simulations to quantify how melting sea ice affects climate, we typically simulate a full century before we have an answer,” said Mark Flanner, professor of climate and space sciences and engineering and the corresponding author of the study published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Read more at University of Michigan
Image: In this view from the Terra satellite, chunks of sea ice appear as white swirls off the coast of Greenland. As the ice thins and darkens, it reflects less sunlight than solid ice sheets, speeding up global heating. (Image credit: NASA’s Earth Observatory)
