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Deep-diving robots help crack the mystery of Antarctica’s vanishing sea ice
Grist ^ | 17/4/26 | Matt Simon

Posted on 04/24/2026 6:02:59 AM PDT by Eleutheria5

Deep-diving robots help crack the mystery of Antarctica’s vanishing sea ice

Something strange has been swirling in the waters around Antarctica. From the 1970s until a decade ago, the floating sea ice that radiates from the continent had been expanding, even with climate change already in full swing. Then, in 2016, it suddenly and dramatically contracted — and has yet to recover — as rising global temperatures seemed to catch up with the Southern Ocean. Far from being just a local issue, the loss of sea ice has huge implications for Antarctica’s vast ice sheet, which would drive sea levels up 190 feet if it disappeared.

Now, scientists say they’ve identified what’s behind this rise and sudden fall, thanks to an assist from deep-diving robots. It all comes down to salinity, winds, and churn. “One of the key takeaways from the study is that the ocean plays a huge role in sort of modulating how sea ice can vary from year to year, decade to decade,” said Earle Wilson, a polar oceanographer at Stanford University and lead author of a new paper describing the research.

.....

As sea ice expanded in the decades before 2016, increased precipitation made surface waters fresher, in contrast to saltier waters below, resulting in stratification. (The saltier a liquid is, the denser it becomes.) This trapped the warmth in the depths, allowing it to build up.

(Excerpt) Read more at grist.org ...


TOPICS: Humor; Local News; Science; Weather
KEYWORDS: 100percentnatural; antarctic; antarctica; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax; robots; seaice
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To: rlmorel

Esty Paltee does Kamala right.


21 posted on 04/24/2026 7:39:22 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 ("America can be summed up in one word: Asmpfutehehepfpfutehe")
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To: rlmorel

And Monty Python will attest that they fall off of castle parapets beautifully.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9DCAFUerzs


22 posted on 04/24/2026 7:45:00 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 ("America can be summed up in one word: Asmpfutehehepfpfutehe")
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To: arthurus

THE SIMPLEST PART OF ALL OF THIS ARGUMENT:

WHEN WATER IS FROZEN===IT TAKES MORE SPACE.

LOOK AT OLD FASHIONED ICE CUBE TRAYS. FILL THE TRAY & FREEZE==THE LEVEL OF THE ICE CUBES IS HIGHER.

OF ALL THE ICE MELTS-—IT WILL TAKE LESS SPACE THAN THE ICE.


23 posted on 04/24/2026 7:52:12 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: rktman

SINCE THE EARTH KEEPS ROTATING, CANNOT IMAGINE THAT WILL HAPPEN.


24 posted on 04/24/2026 7:56:21 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: Pete Dovgan

what is AGD?


25 posted on 04/24/2026 7:58:19 AM PDT by wintertime ( )
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To: ridesthemiles

Even simpler: It’s a good thing. Warmer weather is nice. If the waters rise, you put unemployed ne’er do-wells with strong backs to work building dykes, and pay them for their services. It’ll mean more water for fishies to swim around in and get caught by people and eaten. It’ll mean more crops growing further North and South, and Canadians no longer so uptight all the time about stupid stuff, like climate change, and how they hate yanks because their economy depends on them.


26 posted on 04/24/2026 7:59:43 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 ("America can be summed up in one word: Asmpfutehehepfpfutehe")
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To: Eleutheria5
It all comes down to salinity, winds, and churn. “One of the key takeaways from the study is that the ocean plays a huge role in sort of modulating how sea ice can vary from year to year, decade to decade,”

What drives the wind and the churn? Both of which require energy.

(Hint, it's not fossil fuels).

If you guessed the celestial body Sole you are correct.

Our sun supplies the vast majority of the energy that drives climate cycles.

Why does our planet's climate changing? (by the way it always has) Because the energy output of the sun is changing.

A well known fact of our sun is that it has couple of cycles. The most promanent being the roughly 11 year sun spot cycle.

We are currently entering a solar minimum. This is where there are very few to no sun spots.

During a solar minimum the sun's energy out put is reduced.

This changes the weather patterns.

There is also related to solar minimums, a Grand Solar Minimum. This is a prolonged period of an absence of sun spots. During these Grand Minimums global temperatures fall.

The last Grand Solar Minimum gave us the Little Ice Age.

The Solar Cycles are well know and generally accepted scientific facts.

These facts alone should silence the Global Warmist if they had any intellectual honesty.

But of course they do not and tell the press that the Sun's energy output variances are minor have little effect on the Earth's climate.

27 posted on 04/24/2026 8:07:01 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminisheRs the human spirit.)
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To: zeestephen

If it were a popular election-surely...but that is, as you know, not the way the election is counted.


28 posted on 04/24/2026 8:17:47 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: Eleutheria5

I have been a Monty Python fanatic since 1975!


29 posted on 04/24/2026 8:20:41 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: Pontiac

Well, if it’s just another hoax, I’ll be disappointed. Man-Bear-Pig and I are pals.


30 posted on 04/24/2026 8:40:59 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 ("America can be summed up in one word: Asmpfutehehepfpfutehe")
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To: rlmorel

I just pulled home my 20 ft deck boat,into a 20 mph wind,with my Jeep gladiator. I still beat that Cow.


31 posted on 04/24/2026 8:48:05 AM PDT by justrepublican (Screaming like a "Vexatious requester" at a Wellstone memorial........)
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To: Eleutheria5
Man-Bear-Pig and I are pals.

Name dropper!

Have you flown in his CO2 belching 727?

I wish I had gotten in on the ground floor of his Carbon trading venture.

I could have retired at 50.

/S

32 posted on 04/24/2026 9:00:08 AM PDT by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminisheRs the human spirit.)
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To: arthurus

Please, what does AGD break out to?


33 posted on 04/24/2026 9:36:50 AM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too. 😁 " - Robert Conquest )
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To: PLMerite

The W morphed into a D.


34 posted on 04/24/2026 9:39:46 AM PDT by arthurus (l| covfeve |l )
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To: arthurus

Ah, okay!

I thought they’d come up with some new catastrophe.


35 posted on 04/24/2026 9:47:15 AM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too. 😁 " - Robert Conquest )
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To: wintertime

Should be:
Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW)

It’s a religion, IMHO.


36 posted on 04/24/2026 10:08:57 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
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To: justrepublican

Hahahaha of course...cows are more aerodynamic, but...alas...much slower!


37 posted on 04/24/2026 11:05:32 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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To: rlmorel

actually, the movie “Dave” is more in line and became what actually happened. actor and all with evil despots behind the scene.


38 posted on 04/24/2026 12:24:37 PM PDT by bdfromlv (Leavenworth hard time)
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To: zeestephen

Socialists otherwise known as Dems, will control the House and win the White House in 2028. DJT has destroyed his base, and the phrase make america great again. He is a poser and by his inactions on the Epstein list, is likely front and center.

Why is the guy Kushner, who worked on Covid vaccines with Dr Birx, and brought death to people FROM the shots, running foreign affairs? He is clearly firmly in command, and DJT just flys around, talks and tweets.


39 posted on 04/24/2026 12:45:14 PM PDT by Glad2bnuts
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To: Pete Dovgan

Heh, I knew exactly what you meant, I just assumed they might have issued a new acronym or something, the way they do when the current language is associated with failure, they must make up something new to keep it going.


40 posted on 04/24/2026 6:47:09 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
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