Phydeaux
Posts: 4828
Joined: 1/4/2004 Status: offline
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I'll make the point again, Ken. Lets suppose, just for arguments sake that the humidity in antartica (absolute) is zero. It isn't, infact, it can't be, since the ice vapor pressure exists in equilibrium to the air above it. But, lets suppose its zero. Draw a box around antartica. Now, the waters around antartica are, well, water. The air just above that water is very cold - but not as cold. The water blowing off the oceans and into antartica will be saturated and will deliver water to the continent. The amount of water delivered has *nothing* to do with the humidity of antartica. It doesn't change the direction of the prevailing wind etc. It has to do with the amount of wind, the amount of water vapor in the winds. And it has to do with aerosol formation. Frankly, theres a lot of weird chemistry. I mean theoretically, CO2 would condense out in antartica, causing a slight natural low pressure, causing air to come off the water over the land. The same thing would also be true by black body radiation - the land would cool more/faster than the waters surrounding it. So, no. It is not a requirement that there be global warming to deliver more water to the poles. All that is required is that air currents deliver more water vapor. Could be tied to the cessation of el nino, changes in prevailing wind currents.
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