By Anthony Watts | Watts Up With That? | May 5, 2014
From the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), home of Schnellenhuber.
Uncorking East Antarctica yields unstoppable sea-level rise
The melting of a rather small ice volume on East Antarctica’s shore could trigger a persistent ice discharge into the ocean, resulting in unstoppable sea-level rise for thousands of years to come. This is shown in a study now published in Nature Climate Change by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). The findings are based on computer simulations of the Antarctic ice flow using improved data of the ground profile underneath the ice sheet.
“East Antarctica’s Wilkes Basin is like a bottle on a slant,” says lead-author Matthias Mengel, “once uncorked, it empties out.” The basin is the largest region of marine ice on rocky ground in East Antarctica. Currently a rim of ice at the coast holds the ice behind in place: like a cork holding back the content of a bottle. While the air over Antarctica remains cold, warming oceans can cause ice loss on the coast. … Full article
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Meanwhile… back in reality:
Antarctic Sea Ice Blows Away Records In April
By Paul Homewood
Antarctic sea ice continues to set new records, with extent in April at the highest since measurements began in 1979.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/index.html
Ice extent has also been above last year’s already high levels for most of this year.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/index.html
Meanwhile, both GISS surface and UAH satellite datasets show the Antarctic has been much colder than usual recently.
