Ice Sheet Losses in Antarctica and Greenland

CNN reported that the rapid ice loss of the Thwaites Glacier is set to speed up this century. The retreat of this glacier has accelerated considerably over the past 30 years. Even worse, according to the article, scientists project that Thwaites and the Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse within 200 years, which would have devastating consequences.

Such a development would, of course, be extremely concerning, and that’s why I decided to look into how temperatures in Antarctica have evolved. For that, I searched NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies website for all available time series of Antarctic temperatures that began before the 1960s.

I’ve copied the graphs I found below, starting with Vostok and Amundsen-Scott, located in the central part of the continent, followed by the stations on the continent’s edge, beginning from the boundary of the eastern and western hemispheres and moving westward (like the sun).

My dear reader can draw their own conclusions from the series of images I have copied above. As for me, I do not plan on losing sleep over the CNN article that inspired this writing.

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Speaking of glaciers: it occurred to me that I had read a study by Rebecca Adam McPherson and colleagues, who work in Germany, suggesting that the melting of Greenland’s 79 North glacier, which flows into the ocean, has slowed somewhat in recent years.

While investigating this phenomenon, the researchers found that the water temperatures beneath the glacier’s ice shelf cooled between 2018 and 2021. According to the researchers, this was due to a slowdown in the North Atlantic circulation and the cooling of Atlantic intermediate waters.

This, in turn, was the result of a phenomenon observed in Europe’s atmosphere, where cold Arctic air flowed south through the Fram Strait. This phenomenon is by no means new to science; it has caused other ocean cooling events over the past half-century and will continue to be a key factor in the development of glaciers in northeastern Greenland.

As I read the study, it naturally occurred to me whether this same phenomenon could also explain why Arctic sea ice has not melted since 2013. If so, the melting of sea ice should resume sooner rather than later.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Russia Pays the Price for Its Foolishness
Reevaluating Arctic Sea Ice Melt: A Closer Look at Trends and Predictions
Climate Model Predictions and the Reality of Arctic Sea Ice