Análise das mudanças na extensão do gelo marinho antártico e ártico entre 1979 e 2007 e sua relação com a variabilidade climática global.

Abstract

Recent satellite observations have shown an increase in the total extent of Antarctic sea ice and a reduction of sea ice in the Arctic. Despite these findings, regional analyses in the Southern Ocean indicates negative trends in the Bellingshausen-Amundsen Sea and positive trends in the Ross Sea, while in the Arctic seems to occur a uniform reduction of sea ice. In this study, mutivariate analysis was performed to identify changes in Antarctic sea ice in response to changes in a set of climate forcings/parameters/indices. More specifically, the relationships between sea ice and climate forcings and parameters were examined by linear correlation and cluster analysis. Different responses in different sectors were examined and discussed. The findings indicate that Antarctic sea ice variability is a multivariate phenomenon and that the minimum, maximum, and mean sea ice extent depicts different spatial pattern and may respond to a different set of climate forcings/parameters/indices. A significant impact of climate forcings/parameters/indices occurs over western Antarctic. In the northern hemisphere the increase in global mean temperature and atmospheric CO2 seems to be the major responsible for the reduction in sea ice extent.