A team of scientists from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in De Bilt explained in their recent study that the reason for expansion of sea ice of Antarctica is climate change. This phenomenon may be caused because of cold plumes of fresh water which is derived because of melting that happens beneath the Antarctic ice shelves.
The melted water has comparatively low density which is why it accumulates in top layer of ocean. Cool surface water thereafter re-freezes easily during the Winter and the Autumn. This phenomenon explains why there is an increase in the level of sea ice of Antarctica during these particular seasons.
Climate scientists observed that Antarctic sea ice displayed a slight but statistically crucial increase of around 1.9 percent per decade ever since 1985. On the contrary, level of sea ice in Arctic has been continuously shrinking over past few decades.
These observed changes were tried to be reproduced in the computer-based climate model. The lead author of the study, Richard Bintanja explained that sea ice around the Antarctica has been increasing inspite of an increase in the global temperature.
