Must be polar orbit. One satellite for Arctic and Antarctic. Off in opposite directions at both poles. Strange. If it was a satellite problem, you would think it would be off the same direction at both poles. Perhaps a planetary wide phenomenon is occurring ? Need to see if other polar SATs are affected. Microwave wavelengths?
True. I cannot think of any rational reason for the Arctic data to be tracking accurately, while the Antarctic data is so far irregular.
Could be the difference in latitudes of the two sea ice areas.
But the Arctic reports seems to be behaving themselves.