Estimating the extent of Antarctic summer sea ice during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
In stark contrast to the sharp decline in Arctic sea ice, there has been a steady increase in ice extent around Antarctica during the last three decades, especially in the Weddell and Ross seas. In general, climate models do not to capture this trend and a lack of information about sea ice coverage...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-11-01
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| Series: | The Cryosphere |
| Online Access: | http://www.the-cryosphere.net/10/2721/2016/tc-10-2721-2016.pdf |
| Summary: | In stark contrast to the sharp decline in Arctic sea ice, there has been a
steady increase in ice extent around Antarctica during the last three
decades, especially in the Weddell and Ross seas. In general, climate models
do not to capture this trend and a lack of information about sea ice coverage
in the pre-satellite period limits our ability to quantify the sensitivity of
sea ice to climate change and robustly validate climate models. However,
evidence of the presence and nature of sea ice was often recorded during
early Antarctic exploration, though these sources have not previously been
explored or exploited until now. We have analysed observations of the summer
sea ice edge from the ship logbooks of explorers such as Robert Falcon Scott,
Ernest Shackleton and their contemporaries during the <i>Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration</i> (1897–1917), and in this study we compare these to satellite
observations from the period 1989–2014, offering insight into the ice
conditions of this period, from direct observations, for the first time. This
comparison shows that the summer sea ice edge was between 1.0 and
1.7° further north in the Weddell Sea during this period but that
ice conditions were surprisingly comparable to the present day in other
sectors. |
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| ISSN: | 1994-0416 1994-0424 |