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Antarctic sea ice possible shrunk to a file low final week, US researchers mentioned Monday, its lowest extent within the 45 years of satellite tv for pc record-keeping.
The Nationwide Snow and Ice Information Heart (NSIDC) on the College of Colorado Boulder mentioned that Antarctica’s sea ice fell to 1.79 million sq. kilometers (691,000 million sq. miles) on February 21.
That exceeded the earlier file low set in 2022 by 136,000 sq. kilometers (52,500 sq. miles).
NSIDC scientists careworn that the newest determine was preliminary since additional late-season soften was nonetheless potential. They mentioned they’d concern a ultimate quantity on the extent of ice in early March.
Melting sea ice exposes the thicker ice cabinets buttressing Antarctica’s floor ice sheet to waves and hotter temperatures.
Alarming information on glaciers
On February 21, #Antarctic sea ice possible reached its annual minimal extent of 1.79 million sq. km (691,000 sq. mi). This the bottom sea ice extent within the 1979 to 2023 sea ice file, setting a file low for the second straight yr. Study extra: https://t.co/mfODvwjgmg pic.twitter.com/gcSv5ra5CU
— Nationwide Snow and Ice Information Heart (@NSIDC) February 27, 2023
Melting sea ice has no discernible impression on sea ranges as a result of the ice is already in ocean water.
However the sea ice rings Antarctica’s huge ice cabinets, the extensions of the freshwater glaciers that threaten catastrophic sea degree rise over centuries in the event that they proceed melting as world temperatures rise.
“Antarctica’s response to local weather change has been completely different from the Arctic’s,” mentioned Ted Scambos, a senior analysis scientist on the Cooperative Institute for Analysis within the Environmental Sciences (CIRES).
“The downward pattern in sea ice could also be a sign that world warming is lastly affecting the floating ice round Antarctica, however it would take a number of extra years to be assured of it,” Scambos mentioned.
The Antarctic cycle undergoes vital annual variations throughout its summers of thawing and winters of freezing, and the continent has not skilled the speedy melting of the previous 4 a long time that plague the ice sheets of Greenland and the Arctic as a result of world warming.
However the excessive soften charge since 2016 raises considerations {that a} vital downward pattern could also be taking maintain.
Melting of the ocean ice is problematic as a result of it helps speed up world warming.
When white sea ice — which bounces as much as 90 % of the Solar’s vitality again into area — is changed by darkish, unfrozen sea, the water absorbs an identical proportion of the Solar’s warmth as an alternative.
Globally, final yr was the fifth or sixth warmest on file regardless of the cooling affect of a pure La Nina climate sample.
(AFP)
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