Scientists trying to solve the mystery of why Antarctic sea ice is growing amid rising global temperatures may have found a new lead. Even as sea ice was disappearing globally at an average rate of 13,500 square miles, or about an area the size of Maryland, every year, Antarctic sea ice went on a record streak beginning in 2012, expanding annually until reaching a new record high extent of 7.78 million square miles in fall of 2014. A new study, published Monday in Nature Geoscience, suggests that the explanation of the phenomenon lies not in the Southern Ocean itself, but in the Pacific.
Why is Antarctic sea ice growing?
