Abstract

The response to Antarctic sea-ice loss is examined in comparison to the response to Arctic sea-ice loss and within the context of general greenhouse warming. Sea-ice loss responses are found to be linear with respect to the degree of imposed perturbation and additive when perturbations are applied in hemispheres separately and concurrently. Globally, and in the tropical Pacific in particular, Antarctic sea-ice loss plays a relatively larger role than Arctic sea-ice loss in both the atmosphere and the ocean. Multi-parameter pattern scaling reveals the aspects of the response that are directly related to Antarctic change, such as an equatorward intensification of tropical precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere, and those that are modified via the induced changes in the tropics and Arctic, such as Northern Hemisphere temperature change.