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hatrack

(59,436 posts)
Sat Feb 19, 2022, 11:07 AM Feb 2022

Antarctic Sea Ice Extent Heading For All-Time Record Low - Bottom Likely Next Week


https://sites.uci.edu/zlabe/antarctic-sea-ice-extentconcentration/

As surging global temperatures alter the landscape of the Arctic, scientists are observing what’s shaping up to be a new record at the other end of the globe. Preliminary data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center suggests Antarctica will likely set a record this year for the lowest sea ice extent – the area of ocean covered by sea ice. On Wednesday, sea ice around the continent dropped lower than the previous record minimum set in March 2017.

“What’s going on in the Antarctic is an extreme event,” Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead scientist at NSIDC, told CNN. “But we’ve been through this a bit.” What he means by “this” is a roller coaster of sea ice extent over the past couple of decades, swinging wildly from record highs to record lows. Unlike the Arctic, where scientists say climate change is accelerating its impacts, Antarctica’s sea ice extent is highly variable.

“There’s a link between what’s going on in Antarctica and the general warming trend around the rest of the world, but it’s different from what we see in mountain glaciers and what we see in the Arctic,” he added.

Satellite data that stretches back to 1978 shows that the region was still producing record-high sea ice extent as recently as 2014 and 2015. Then it suddenly plunged in 2016 and has stayed lower-than-average since. “That kind of drop is pretty much unprecedented in the record,” Marilyn Raphael, geography professor and director at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, told CNN. “Antarctic sea ice does vary from year to year, but that was a bigger variation than what normally happens.”

EDIT

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/world/antarctica-sea-ice-low-extent-record-climate/index.html
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