A new study has found that along with the ice in the Arctic Ocean, global climatic changes are hugely affecting the ice in the Antarctic Ocean as well.
Reports of how the changing of climatic conditions has affected the Arctic Ocean have been published on various occasions. However, the effect on the Antarctic Ocean has not been discussed frequently as not many changes have been found. However, recently developments have caught many scientists' attention.
According to scientists from NERC's British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena California has found that the Antarctic Seas is also losing ice but in a different way as compared to the Arctic.
Lead author, Dr Paul Holland of BAS says: "Until now these changes in ice drift were only speculated upon, using computer models of Antarctic winds. This study of direct satellite observations shows the complexity of climate change. The total Antarctic sea-ice cover is increasing slowly, but individual regions are actually experiencing much larger gains and losses that are almost offsetting each other overall. We now know that these regional changes are caused by changes in the winds, which in turn affect the ice cover through changes in both ice drift and air temperature. The changes in ice drift also suggest large changes in the ocean surrounding Antarctica, which is very sensitive to the cold and salty water produced by sea-ice growth."
"Sea ice is constantly on the move; around Antarctica the ice is blown away from the continent by strong northward winds. Since 1992 this ice drift has changed. In some areas the export of ice away from Antarctica has doubled, while in others it has decreased significantly."
By the report, it can be observed that while the cover of ice in and around the Antarctica has increased, the layer of ice is comparatively thinner than what it used to be.
The findings were published in this week's journal Nature Geoscience.
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