On Thermal Expansion & Thermal Contraction - 4

Fig. 1

The graph at Fig. 1 is composed from World Ocean Database (WOD) data from all around the coast of Antarctica.

Those zones are listed on the Fig. 1 graph, and shown by the red line on Fig. 2.

Like the Greenland graph (Databases Galore - 15) the Antarctica graph at Fig. 1 shows a lot of temperature volatility over the years.

For example, the surface temperature actually becomes colder than the temperature of the deepest water levels (see Fig. 1 @ "0-200m" vs. ">3000m").

Fig. 2

As with Greenland, atmospheric warming, melt-water, and subsurface currents cause temperature dynamics that seem anomalous (cf. video 1 below).

This volatility is noticeable from satellites in orbit if the proper instruments are on board:

"On the basis of the GRACE data, we conclude that most of the change in ocean mass is caused by the melting of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers. This contribution of ice melt is larger than previous estimates, but agrees with reports of accelerated ice melt in recent years",

(Nature: GRACE evidence). In addition to the melt-water and icebergs, ghost water flows away from the coast of ice sheets when those ice sheets lose mass and, as a consequence of losing mass, lose gravitational power (The Ghost-Water Constant, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).

Fig. 3 Stockholm then and Stockholm now

Thus, that generally cold ghost-water will have an impact on water temperatures where ever that ghost water ends up.

If we remember what Professor Mitrovica pointed out: if sea level in parts of Europe is falling or is less than its surrounding areas elsewhere, Greenland is melting - paraphrased (see Fig. 3, and 2nd video below at 20:20).

I have argued that since sea level fall has been happening for a long time in certain areas of Europe:

"The indication is that the Industrial Revolution of 1750 began to have an impact on the oceans earlier than previously thought" (Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 54); "This sea level fall and sea level rise dynamic is a reality that has been happening since circa 1775" (Questionable Scientific Papers - 6).

Which means that Greenland has been melting for a long time (Proof of Concept - 5).

New research bolsters this (to me) obvious dynamic:

The evolution of industrial-era warming across the continents and oceans provides a context for future climate change and is important for determining climate sensitivity and the processes that control regional warming. Here we use post-ad 1500 palaeoclimate records to show that sustained industrial-era warming of the tropical oceans first developed during the mid-nineteenth century and was nearly synchronous with Northern Hemisphere continental warming. The early onset of sustained, significant warming in palaeoclimate records and model simulations suggests that greenhouse forcing of industrial-era warming commenced as early as the mid-nineteenth century and included an enhanced equatorial ocean response mechanism. The development of Southern Hemisphere warming is delayed in reconstructions, but this apparent delay is not reproduced in climate simulations. Our findings imply that instrumental records are too short to comprehensively assess anthropogenic climate change and that, in some regions, about 180 years of industrial-era warming has already caused surface temperatures to emerge above pre-industrial values, even when taking natural variability into account.

(NATURE, Early onset of industrial-era warming, August 25, 2016). I have also written about my agreement with the notion in that quote concerning climate sensitivity.

As it turns out, and will continue to turn out, the climate system is more sensitive "than previously thought" (The Damaged Global Climate System, 2, 3, 4, 5).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

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