Is Antarctica Really Getting Icier? New Study Raises Questions

[xchrom]

http://www.livescience.com/46914-antarctica-sea-ice-expansion-controversy.html

?1406003827
An iceberg surrounded by sea ice in Antarctica.
Credit: Eva Nowatzki, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu

As Arctic sea ice vanishes at an alarming rate, scientists have reported a surprising finding in Antarctica. There, sea ice seems to be expanding.

A new study, however, suggests that Antarctic sea ice might not be expanding as much as had been previously thought. According to this view, the trend toward expansion might be an error introduced by a recalibration of how satellite data is processed.

"This ostensibly minor update in 2007 that was not believed to have caused any notable difference in the trend caused this big jump," said study researcher Ian Eisenman, who studies climate dynamics at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. [Album: Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice]

Eisenman's view is contested, not least by the scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who developed the algorithm that is being criticized in the new study.

[OnlinePoker]

1. From the report "After 2007, however, the trend toward expansion took off."

Not according to Cryosphere Today. It dropped into mid-2011 with one spike in 2010. It only began the rapid expansion in 2011.