RELATIONSHIP OF ANTARCTIC AND ARCTIC SEA ICE EXTENTWITH TEMPERATURE CHANGES IN 1979-2020
Quantitative estimates of the relationship between interannual variations in the Antarctic and Arctic sea ice extent and changes in the surface air temperature in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres were obtained using satellite, ground-based and reanalysis data for the last four decades (1980–2019). It is shown that the previously noted general increase in the Antarctic sea ice extent until recent years based on satellite data (available only since the late 1970s) under global warming and a rapid decrease in the Arctic sea ice extent is associated with a regional decrease in surface temperature in Antarctic latitudes from the end 1970s. This is the result of a regional manifestation of natural climate variations with periods of up to several decades against the background of global secular warming with a relatively weak temperature trend over the ocean in the Southern Hemisphere. Since 2016, a sharp decrease in the Antarctic sea ice extent in the Southern Ocean has been noted. The results of the correlation and cross-wavelet analysis indicate significant coherence and negative correlation with the surface temperature of the sea ice extent in the last decades, not only in the Arctic, but also in the Antarctic.