Icy Imbalance: Newsletter Challenge (November 2014)

My guess is that the land mass beneath insulates the bottom of the ice.

The South Pole is surrounded by the ocean, which raises the moisture content in the air, and the cold air off Antarctica causes it to precipitate, and precipitation in turn cools the air. As the ocean surrounding the South Pole is more abundant and warmer than the waters around the North Pole, there is a larger mass of colder air due to precipitation, that freezes the Antarctica continent. The warmer the ocean around Antarctica the larger it will be.

Regards JD.

You are both correct.

It's weather patterns and land mass.

And I would add the wind patterns (catabaric?) may favor the importation of more moisture to the South Pole.

Yes to those - but also:

The Gulf Stream in the Northern Hemisphere sends a current of warm water up past the British Isles and beyond Scandinavia, bringing warm water to the Arctic and minimizing the accumulation of ice. (The Gulf Stream is why Ireland has a relatively mild climate despite it's high latitude. You can find tropical plants growing there.)

There is no Southern Hemisphere equivalent. Antarctica is surrounded by a steady stream of cold water called the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which keeps the continent locked in a ice zone.

The south pole is at the bottom of the World and therefore water runs down to it, but leaving some water at the North pole which is frozen - perhaps.

Wait until the poles flip, then see what happens!

Warm air rises too, melting lots of ice at the top of the world.

1.Based upon the open sea surface area availability, the southern pole is having less land and more water surface surrounded. So more scope for water vapor formation at southern pole than northern pole.

2.The 23.5 degrees shift of equator poses more sunshine gives more scope for water vapor formation & clouds accumulation on southern pole.

3,The shift of sun's path away from the earth in winter season have a profound effect at southern pole leading to more ice formation consolidated by point one.

4.The overall temperature of southern pole is comparatively lower due lesser effects of global warming like emissions etc.

5. Whereas more rain fall is feasible at north pole surroundings, due to condensation. rain fall scope is lesser at southern pole & hence more of ice formation with lesser rain leading to more of ice accumulation.

6. Arctic is surrounded by more land and Antarctic by more sea.

7. Lack of high altitude mountains at antarctic, prevents ice melting during summer seasons unlike Himalayas, alphs etc.

That justifies 10 times more ice formation at antarctic than at arctic from a common man's view.???

As happens ocasionally, this sent me on a trek through the interwebs and I found this interesting, and to me, surprising piece.

One major factor is that the Roaring Forties is a circum global wind pattern that effectively seals the region south or 45 degrees or so from mixing with the warmer air just south of the equator. Similarly wind pattern (blowing continuously from the west) creates a circum global marine current which impedes mixing between the warm equatorial waters and the colder Antarctic waters. These factors in combination with the underlying land mass of Antarctica keeping much of the ice out of the water and even raised to higher (colder) elevations explains most of the difference.

One other factor is the difference between the albedo in the North and South. The arctic ice sheet has openings where water is exposed to the sun, and the dark water absorbs more heat. In the south the ice coverage is much more continuous so more of the radiation is reflected. A further complication is that in the industrialized northern hemisphere there is more particulate carbon in the atmosphere, and where it settles on snow or ice you get 'dirty ice'. The albedo is reduced resulting in more heat being absorbed. The relatively pristine southern atmosphere has much less particulate carbon, and this smaller load is effectively blocked from the Antarctic by the Roaring Forties.

While all the already mentioned causes have a contribution, I think the main cause of the difference is the presence of the continent in the Antarctic region - this allows the accumulation of ice because the only source of melting is the warmer summer (the frozen soil acts like a thermal insulator). But the summer is not worm enough (and long enough) to melt all the snow that has fallen during one year, so layers of snow turn into ice and add to the total thickness. But in the Arctic region there is an ocean, so the ice is floating on water and this causes a more important source of melting (which also acts all over the year). Also, any snow accumulation will cause more ice to be under the water (the ratio of under and over the water ice is constant) and this will accelerate the melting - it's a self-regulating mechanism that doesn't allow the ice to get too thick.

first important reason for this is the landmass of the antartica, the artic ice shelf is swimming on water that flows around the landmasses (mexican gulf stream) and so does the air flowing/streaming around the rocky mountains.

the north half of the earth contains much more landmass than the south half, so the air moisture is in the south half much higher as a second importnt reason.

a less important reason is the radiation of the sun - the vapor is created by the suns radiation (much radiation much vapor? - much water much vapor)

Because Antarctica is a continent while the Artic is an ocean. The Artic snow field is floating over water, it is not very thick because the currents under the ice cap supply heat to prevent the whole thing to freeze. In Antarctica the snow is over land, that does not supply heat to melt the snow in contact with the soil. Therefore snow is simply accumulating there for eons.