How has the sea ice that surrounds Antarctica varied over the
period for which there exist comprehensive satellite data? In
what follows, we review what has been learned about the subject
-- in the order in which it was learned -- starting with the
very first year of the current millennium. Noting that
"Antarctic sea ice may show high sensitivity to any
anthropogenic increase in temperature" -- as per the canary-in-
the-coal-mine concept of high-latitude amplification of
CO2-induced global warming -- while further noting that most
climate models suggest that an increase in surface temperature
"would result in a decrease in sea ice coverage," Watkins and
Simmonds (2000) analyzed temporal trends in different measures
of the sea ice that surrounds Antarctica, using Special Sensor
Microwave Imager data obtained from the Defense Meteorological
Satellite Program for the nine-year period December
1987-December 1996, in search of the suspected signal. But
contrary to what one would expect on the basis of the model sim