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Sea ice trends in the Antarctic and their relationship to surface air temperature during 1979–2009

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Abstract

Surface air temperature (SAT) from four reanalysis/analysis datasets are analyzed and compared with the observed SAT from 11 stations in the Antarctic. It is found that the SAT variation from Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is the best to represent the observed SAT. Then we use the sea ice concentration (SIC) data from satellite measurements, the SAT data from the GISS dataset and station observations to examine the trends and variations of sea ice and SAT in the Antarctic during 1979–2009. The Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE) shows an increased trend during 1979–2009, with a trend rate of 1.36 ± 0.43% per decade. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition analysis shows that the rate of the increased trend has been accelerating in the past decade. Antarctic SIE trend depends on the season, with the maximum increase occurring in autumn. If the relationship between SIC and GISS SAT trends is examined regionally, Antarctic SIC trends agree well with the local SAT trends in the most Antarctic regions. That is, Antarctic SIC and SAT show an inverse relationship: a cooling (warming) SAT trend is associated with an upward (downward) SIC trend. It is also concluded that the relationship between sea ice and SAT trends in the Antarctic should be examined regionally rather than integrally.

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Acknowledgments

SIC data is provided by http://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0051.html, GISS SAT data is available from http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis SAT data is from http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis.html, COREs SAT data is provided by http://data1.gfdl.noaa.gov/nomads/forms/mom4/COREv2.html, and ECMWF SAT data is available from http://data.ecmwf.int/data/, 11 stations SAT data are download from http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/met/gjma/. The authors thank the above data providers. This study is supported by 973 Project (No. 2010CB950301; No. 2010CB950502) and the Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40730842).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao, 266061, People’s Republic of China

    Qi Shu, Fangli Qiao & Zhenya Song

  2. Key Laboratory of Marine Science and Numerical Modeling, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao, 266061, People’s Republic of China

    Qi Shu, Fangli Qiao & Zhenya Song

  3. NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, FL, USA

    Chunzai Wang

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  1. Qi Shu
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  2. Fangli Qiao
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  3. Zhenya Song
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  4. Chunzai Wang
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Correspondence to Fangli Qiao.

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Shu, Q., Qiao, F., Song, Z. et al. Sea ice trends in the Antarctic and their relationship to surface air temperature during 1979–2009. Clim Dyn 38, 2355–2363 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1143-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1143-9

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