Open AccessTrends in the polar sea ice coverage under climate change scenario
Author(s) -
Amita Prabhu,
P. N. Mahajan,
R. M. Khaladkar
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
mausam
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0252-9416
DOI - 10.54302/mausam.v62i4.377
Subject(s) - sea ice , arctic sea ice decline , arctic ice pack , climatology , arctic , cryosphere , northern hemisphere , environmental science , southern hemisphere , climate change , arctic geoengineering , the arctic , oceanography , antarctic sea ice , geology
The development in the satellite microwave technology during the past three decades has offered an opportunity to the scientific community to access the sea ice data over the polar regions, which was otherwise inaccessible for continuous monitoring by any other means. The present study focuses on the trends in the Sea Ice Extent (SIE) over different sectors of the Arctic and the Antarctic regions and the interannual variability in their extremes. In general, the data over the period (1979-2007) reveal marked interannual variability in the sea ice cover with an increasing and the decreasing trend over the Antarctic and the Arctic region respectively. Over the southern hemisphere, only the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas sector shows an exceptional decreasing trend. However, in the northern hemisphere, all the sectors show a decreasing trend, with the Kara and Barents Seas sector being the most prominent one. Although, the decreasing trend of the SIE over the Arctic could be attributed to the global warming, an intriguing question still remains as to why the other polar region shows a different behaviour.