Is the Antarctic ice melting or is it just the Arctic ice?

Answer 1

Antarctica has lost two huge arms of ice that even had names they had been there so long ,so yes parts of the South pole must also be melting ,
So is Green land and of course the north pole

Answer 2

They are both melting. However there are major differences between the arctic and the antarctic, and their melting has different effects on the earth and climate. The Arctic is sea ice, and so will not change sea levels by melting, it will however dramatically alter the Earth's albedo and amongst other things, result in extinction of animals which rely on it.
Antarctic ice is fresh water ice, when chunks of it break off the continent and melt into the ocean, it adds volume to the ocean.

Answer 3

The continent of Antarctica is getting colder, and the sea ice of Antarctica set a record for maximum size since 1978, only the Antarctica peninsula has had some calving of ice bergs do to ocean current change.


http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020820southseaice.html


“You can see with this dataset that what is happening in the Antarctic is not what would be expected from a straightforward global warming scenario, but a much more complicated set of events,” Parkinson said."

Answer 4

The ice is melting at both poles and it always does. The question is, is it accumulating faster than it is melting. These are processes that take a lot of time for it to show. It is difficult to look at any 10 year or hundred year for that matter and say for sure what the trends are. For certain, the ice has been generally melting for the last few thousand years since we came out of the last period of glaciation. To try to blame a portion or all of the recent melting on humans becomes next to impossible to quantify but that doesn't stop some people from trying.

Answer 5

The ice nearest the South Pole is not melting. The ice on the Antarctica Penninsula is melting as fast or faster as the Arctic. The ice on the coast is melting more slowly.

Central Antarctica has actually cooled a bit. As you move away from the South Pole the effect is less. Scientists theorize that it has to do with the ozone hole, but that's not certain.

Answer 6

Well, you’re getting lots of differing opinions here, aren’t you?

Bob claims that “The ice on the Antarctica Penninsula [sic] is melting as fast or faster as the Arctic” and Crabby_blindguy even categorically states that phillipk_1959 is incorrect, asserting that “Antartic [sic] ice is melting and the continent is warming.”

So, who should we believe?

Well, we are constantly being told that the IPCC report is based on the work of 2,500 of the world’s top climate scientists. So what do they have to say on the subject?

Well, here’s the summary of their latest report… http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf and at the bottom of page 9 they state:

“Antarctic sea ice extent continues to show inter-annual variability and localized changes but no statistically significant average trends, consistent with the lack of warming reflected in atmospheric temperatures averaged across the region.”

So, it would appear that both Bob and Crabby_blindguy are wrong.

As ever with global warming - don't believe the hype.


:::EDIT:::

I’ll give one (and one only) response to Paul H, because he is a Global Warming Alarmist of the absolute worst kind. As a result, no matter what I say, he will never accept that he could possibly be wrong. Thus, debate with Paul is pointless.

The quote I gave from the IPCC’s Summary for Policy Makers is, as the name suggests, the IPCC’s summary of the available data. If Paul has a problem with how they’ve summarised that data, perhaps he should take it up with them? I’m sure that they would be very pleased to be informed that they’ve made a glaring error.

Except, of course, they haven’t. Paul is simply cherry-picking which parts of the IPCC’s full report he quotes – completely ignoring other parts that don’t say what he wants to hear. For example…

“Use of the more spatially restricted Davis et al. (2005) SRALT data rather than the Zwally et al. (2006) results illustrates the persistent uncertainties; depending on the assumed density structure of the changes, Davis et al. (2005) combined with the Rignot et al. (2005) estimate for the Antarctic Peninsula would suggest near-balance or antarctic growth.”

And…

“Assessment of the data and techniques suggests overall Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance ranging from growth of 50 Gt yr–1 to shrinkage of 200 Gt yr–1 from 1993 to 2003. As in the case of Greenland, the small number of measurements, lack of agreement between techniques, and existence of systematic errors that cannot be estimated accurately preclude formal error analyses and confidence limits. There is no implication that the midpoint of the range given provides the best estimate. Lack of older data complicates a similar estimate for the period 1961 to 2003. Acceleration of mass loss is likely to have occurred, but not so dramatically as in Greenland. Considering the lack of estimated strong trends in accumulation rate, assessment of the possible acceleration and the slow time scales affecting central regions of the ice sheets, it is reasonable to estimate that the behaviour from 1961 to 2003 falls between ice sheet growth of 100 Gt yr–1 and shrinkage of 200 Gt yr–1.”

In other words, while there are individual reports that show some ice loss, the data is so short, inconsistent and has such a large error that no statistically significant average trends can be reliably determined.

This is pretty much how they summarise it in the summary (surprise, surprise).

Paul, is it too much to ask for you to make at least *some* attempt to fairly represent the sources you quote, before leaping in with unfounded attacks against those providing answers supported by *all* the evidence? Bob was wrong, in as much as he is in disagreement with what the IPCC state. If he (or you) has a problem with what the IPCC state, then don’t attack me for it. Tell them they’ve got it wrong. I’m sure they’ll be delighted to hear from you.

Answer 7

The IPCC reports do indeed discuss Arctic and Antarctic ice. Overall the Arctic sea ice is diminishing and Greenland in the North too is losing ice overall.

Antarctica is more subtle, as Bob points out. There is net loss around the edges and on the peninsula, and net gain in the centre of the continent.

I note that there are differing opinions here on this. Apparently Amancalledchuda disagrees with Bob and my own opinions on this, citing the IPCC SPM report as proof of this. However, chuda doesn't seem to have read the full report which contains far more information regarding ice sheet melting:

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Print_Ch04.pdf

Some snippets:

page 361: Confirming that the general picture of melting at the fringes.

"Calculation of mass discharge also requires estimates for runoff of surface melt water, which is large for low-elevation regions of Greenland and parts of the Antarctic Peninsula but small or zero elsewhere on the ice sheets."

page 364: Detailed discussion of mass balance over the whole Antarctic continent. Take home message: melting is occurring at the fringes to sufficient extent to push Antarctica into net loss although there is some uncertainty about this (read on it will explain).

"Recent estimates of Antarctic Ice Sheet mass balance are
summarised in Figure 4.18 (bottom). Rignot and Thomas (2002) combined several data sets including improved estimates of glacier velocities from InSAR to obtain antarctic mass budget estimates. For East Antarctica, growth of 20 ± 21 Gt yr–1 was indicated, with estimated losses of 44 ± 13 Gt yr–1 from West Antarctica. The balance of the Antarctic Peninsula was not assessed. Combining the East and West Antarctic numbers yielded a loss of 24 ± 25 Gt yr–1 for the region monitored. The time interval covered by these estimates is not tightly constrained, because ice input was estimated from data sets of varying length; output data were determined primarily in the few years before 2002.
Zwally et al. (2006) obtained SRALT coverage for about
80% of the ice sheet, including some portions of the Antarctic Peninsula, and interpolated to the rest of the ice sheet. The resulting balance included West Antarctic loss of 47 ± 4 Gt yr–1, East Antarctic gain of 17 ± 11 Gt yr–1 and overall loss of 30 ± 12 Gt yr–1. If all the ice thickness changes were low-density firn rather than ice, the loss would be smaller (14 ± 5 Gt yr–1)."

page 363: Greenland.....again, there is a consistent picture from observations that this ice sheet is in general retreat.

"Many recent studies have addressed Greenland mass
balance. They yield a broad picture (Figure 4.17) of inland
thickening (Thomas et al., 2001; Johannessen et al., 2005;
Thomas et al., 2006; Zwally et al., 2006), faster near-coastal
thinning primarily in the south along fast-moving outlet glaciers (Abdalati et al., 2001; Rignot and Kanagaratnam, 2006), and a recent acceleration in overall shrinkage.
Analysis of GRACE data showed total losses of 75 ± 26
Gt yr–1 between April 2002 and July 2004 (Velicogna and Wahr, 2005). Ramillien et al. (2006), also working from GRACE data, found a mass loss of 129 ± 15 Gt yr–1 for July 2002 to March 2005. Because of the low spatial resolution of GRACE, these include losses from isolated mountain glaciers and ice caps near the coast, whereas the results discussed next do not."

I hope this helps.

Chuda, is it too much to ask for you to research your answers before leaping in with unfounded attacks against those providing answers supported by the evidence? Bob got it virtually spot on, yet you conflated Antarctic fringes to Antarctica as a whole, but you were still wrong on that point, as my quotes from the IPCC WG1 report show.

Answer 8

philipk_1959 is incorrect. The Antartic ice is melting and the continent is warming.

His misrepresentation is worth commenting on--it's an example of how the skeptics delibrerately distort information to mislead people.

here's what's actually happening: the average temperature of the Antartic is warming--and ice is melting. But--because of climate shifts already occuring in the area, this pattern is not uniform. The melting and warming are taking place in the coastalregions. The deep interior--around the South Pole--is actually a little colder due to the shifts in weather patterns.

The skeptics--like the one here--take this and deliberately say only "the Antartic is getting colder"--and leave out that it is only a single portion that is getting colder, and that the overall region is warming.

Sorry to go on so--but this is such a perfect example of how this "denier" propaganda is created and presented, I couldn't resist! :)

Answer 9

Arctic sea ice is melting mainly from dynamic forcings (wind and ocean currents) related to regional climate and not to radiative or thermal forcings related to global warming. Read the paper by Laxon.
http://www.cpom.org/research/swl-nature.pdf

Answer 10

Antartica is getting colder. Research stations are only fifty years old.