A recent report from the European Space Agency (ESA) has shown that the ice loss in Antarctica over the last few years has left a mark - an actual gravity dip. Paradoxically, Climate Central has just reported that Antarctic Sea ice has hit a simultaneous new maximum in growth. Though the two findings seem to oppose each other, it is likely that both are connected to global warming.

The European Space Agency currently uses the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) in order to measure Earth's gravity in detail. It is known that changes in the mass of large ice sheets can cause small variations in gravity, but scientists were surprised when the GOCE's high-resolution measurements over Antarctica between November 2009 and June 2012 revealed unexpected results.

The decrease in the mass of the ice during this period was mirrored in GOCE's measurements, and confirmed that the loss of ice from West Antarctica between 2009 and 2012 caused a dip in the gravity field over the region.

Ice loss in Antarctica is growing at a rapid rate - according to ESA's CryoStat satellite, the rate at which ice is been lost from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet every year has increased by a factor of three since 2009. Furthermore, between 2011 and 2014 Antarctica as a whole has been shrinking in volume by 125 cubic kilometers a year.

Meanwhile, Ted Scambos, a senior scientist with The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, is saying, "Antarctic sea ice in 2014 is going to set a record for sure." Climate Central reports that this end-of-season apex will have surpassed 20 million square kilometers (or 7.7 million square miles), which is a record high.

However, the growth of Antarctic sea ice may also be connected to global warming, though the exact combination of causes is still a major area of study. While it seems like record ice growth contradicts global warming or might make up for the melting in the Arctic, it actually does neither.

Scientists assert that the percent rise in the Antarctic sea ice extent is smaller than the decline in Arctic sea ice, and that Antarctic growth is "nowhere near the kind of potential climate impact we're seeing from losing Arctic ice." In actuality, the ice growth could be a symptom of the Earth's changing climate. Scambos stated, "We don't understand everything about the Antarctic sea ice extent...but Antarctica is very much participating in the overall global climate."