Antarctic Albedo-Warming Potential
Quantifying ocean warming from reduced sea ice
For a full description see the documentation page.
Select individual years with the slider to view the difference with the new millenia baseline of 2000-2019.
In the charts below click on the legend to deselect a series.
The maximum accumulated solar radiation varies greatly by latitude when taken over the whole astronomical summer. At the 80S the max is 2870 MJ/m2, at 60S it is 4200MJ/m2 and at 40S 5300MJ/m2. That's why on the map with raw energy values the Antarctic appears significantly whiter than the north, even when regions are mostly icefree. Instead of energy values the chart on the left shows the percentage of locally avaliable solar radiation.
Data used
Cavalieri, D. J., C. L. Parkinson, P. Gloersen, and H. J. Zwally. 1996, updated yearly. Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data, Version 1.1 Boulder, Colorado USA. NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center. doi: https://doi.org/10.5067/8GQ8LZQVL0VL.