Antarctica’s Rising Warm Water ‘Crisis’ Exposed

Written by Myles (PSI researcher) on August 14, 2018. Posted in Current News

Alarmists have been raising fears that increased warm water in the Antarctic is reaching a ‘crisis.’ However, NASA pours cold water on the claim reporting Antarctica’s sea ice just hit a record HIGH.

“ Sea ice surrounding Antarctica reached a new record high extent this year, covering more of the southern oceans than it has since scientists began a long-term satellite record to map sea ice extent in the late 1970s.”  https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/antarctic-sea-ice-reaches-new-record-maximum

Should ice melt back a bit now should come as no surprise either to a rationally minded individual. But we are led to believe that below the ice the crisis is still going on. Warm water is upwelling and the ice is melting away from below.

“The ocean surrounding Antarctica is extremely cold, but water over 300m deep, Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), is about 3⁰C above the melting point of ice. Normally, the very cold water above keeps this away from ice shelves. But in some areas, CDW is spilling onto the shallow Antarctic continental shelf, causing the ice to thin.” From -theconversation.com

What is the cause of the upwelling warmer waters?

Researchers put it down to changes in the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds. (SHWW):

“Both studies suggest that the cause of the CDW upwelling before 7,000 years ago was a more southerly position of the southern hemisphere westerly winds (SHWW). These winds are thought to drive circulation of the warmer deep water. A recent shift in the position of the SHWW towards the poles could be the cause of greater CDW upwelling in Pine Island Bay since the 1940s.” http://theconversation.com/warm-waters-melting-antarctic-ice-shelves-may-have-appeared-for-the-first-time-in-over-7-000-years-82016

The alarmists of course jump to the conclusion that it must be the demonised CO2 to blame. But there are research documents that conclusively suggest that the SUN is the major driver. Below are two examples.

A 250-year periodicity in Southern Hemisphere westerly winds over the last 2600 years

1. S. M. Turney^1,2, R. T. Jones³, C. Fogwill^1,2, J. Hatton³, A. N. Williams^1,4, A. Hogg⁵, Z. A. Thomas^1,2, J. Palmer^1,2, S. Mooney¹, and R. W. Reimer⁶

“  Spectral analysis of the charcoal record identifies a pervasive ca. 250-year periodicity that is coherent with radiocarbon production rates, suggesting that solar variability has a modulating influence on Southern Hemisphere westerly airflow. “  https://www.clim-past.net/12/189/2016/

Another research document also finds that the Sun is driving changes in the SHWW.

Solar-forced shifts of the Southern Hemisphere Westerlies during the late Holocene

“It is shown that a high-resolution iron record from the Chilean continental slope (41° S), which basically reflects changes in the position of the SWW, is significantly correlated with reconstructed solar activity. In addition, solar sensitivity experiments with a comprehensive global climate model (CCSM3) are carried out to study the response of SWW to solar variability. Taken together, the proxy and model results strongly suggest that centennial-scale periods of lower (higher) solar activity caused equatorward (southward) shifts of the SWW during the past 3000 years.”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307847277_Solar-forced_shifts_of_the_Southern_Hemisphere_Westerlies_during_the_late_Holocene

The missing upwelling warm waters

   The allegations of a crisis state that huge amounts of ice is melting away underneath so a team of researchers set out to verify this. They drilled through the Ross ice shelf to measure “water temperatures and and ocean currents beneath it-thereby determining how quickly ice is melting off its underside.”

But to their surprise they found no melting but the opposite, ice freezing onto the underside:

“ But as the camera passed through the bottom of the hole, it showed the underside of the ice adorned with a glittering layer of flat ice crystals—like a jumble of snowflakes—evidence that in this particular place, sea water is actually freezing onto the base of the ice instead of melting it.

“It blew our minds,” says Christina Hulbe, a glaciologist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, who co-led the expedition.”

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/ross-ice-shelf-bore-antarctica-freezing/

Anthropogenic Global Warming ruled out of having any effect

   So we see the upwelling is wind driven and has a strong solar driver but of course the alarmists claim it to be driven by AGW. Unfortunately for the scapegoaters of CO2 the upwelling warm waters come from such a depth that they have not seen the atmosphere in hundreds of years.

Deep, old water explains why Antarctic Ocean hasn’t warmed

Date: May 30, 2016

Source: University of Washington

Summary:

The water around Antarctica has not seen the atmosphere for centuries, since long before the machine age. New observations and model simulations suggest this may be the last place on Earth to feel climate change.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160530115537.htm

Any human driven influence on the temperature of the ocean since the start of the industrial revolution have not affected this water in any way. Which means any changes that occur in Antarctica underwater can be conclusively  attributed to natural causes.

And of course there’s the Volcanic Activity Under the Ice

Yet another natural cause of change in the Antarctic region that cannot be left out is the volcanic activity under the ice. In fact Antarctica’s fastest melting glacier has been shown to be melting from this cause. There are numerous active volcanoes under the ice a whole chain of them.

“Our finding of a substantial volcanic heat source beneath a major WAIS glacier highlights the need to understand subglacial volcanism, its hydrologic interaction with the marine margins, and its potential role in the future stability of the WAIS.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04421-3

Do the Climate scientists bring the solar influence to light and the evidence that the water upwelling is too old to have been affected by modern man in their articles.? Not that I’ve seen.

Clearly it must be included. Therefore it is reasonable to state that articles written ignoring this vitally important evidence is either poorly researched science or propaganda.

PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX. Telephone: Calls from within the UK: 020 7419 5027. International dialling: (44) 20 7419 5027. 

Please DONATE TODAY To Help Our Non-Profit Mission To Defend The Scientific Method.

Trackback from your site.