https://wattsupwiththat.com The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change Mon, 16 May 2016 10:45:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wattsupwiththat.com/southern-polar-vortex-page/#comment-1172919 Mon, 16 May 2016 10:45:59 +0000 http://wattsupwiththat.com/?page_id=100985#comment-1172919 Readers are reminded that “changes” in the (southern) polar vortex (due to climate change) are regularly blamed for the many years of steadily increasing Antarctic sea ice extents and sea ice area surrounding Antarctica. Supposedly, the increased winds blow the sea ice away from the shoreline, opening up new ocean water to the fresh water-diluted Antarctic Ocean surrounding the continent (the increased fresh water volume being due to the increased melting of the Antarctic land ice), and thus allowing sea ice to freeze. Winds increase again, get blow away from the continent, more sea ice freezes.
The concept does not make sense thermodynamically, nor physically – since the air temperature above Antarctica has been decreasing, the polar vortex winds have not been increasing, and the mass of land ice above the continental land mass has been increasing everywhere except the 4% of land in the West Antarctic Peninsula. (Which is the only area on the continent that is warming.) Further, the small bit of “fresh water” that does melt under glacier ice on the continental edge immediately re-freezes as long runnels of ice underwater as soon as it hits the below-freezing (very salty) ocean water around the coasts. It cannot dilute the tens-of-thousands-times larger Antarctic Ocean surrounding the continent.
This reference page will be a very useful source.

]]> https://wattsupwiththat.com/southern-polar-vortex-page/#comment-1172918 Mon, 16 May 2016 10:00:16 +0000 http://wattsupwiththat.com/?page_id=100985#comment-1172918 Very interesting, thank you.

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