The sea ice surrounding Antarctica has reached a level well below any previous measurement, according to satellite data. This is causing alarm among scientists who saw the region as resistant to global warming.
“(The levels) are so far removed from anything we’ve ever seen, it’s almost chilling,” says Walter Meier, who monitors sea ice at the US Snow and Ice Data Center.
The instability in Antarctica could have far-reaching consequences, according to experts on the polar ecosystem.
The huge Antarctic ice pack helps regulate the planet’s temperature, as the white surface reflects the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere and cools the water below and around it.
With the reduction of this ice pack, Antarctica could be transformed from “Earth’s refrigerator” into the planet’s “heater”.
The ice floating on the surface of the Antarctic Ocean today measures less than 17 million square kilometers. This is 1.5 million less sea ice than the historical average for the month of September, and well below the lowest levels measured in the winter period in the region.
Meier is not optimistic that this loss will be significantly recovered.
Scientists are still trying to identify all the factors that lead to record lows, but studying trends in Antarctica has always been a challenge.
In a year in which several records for high land and ocean temperatures have been broken, scientists insist that we need to pay attention to what is happening at the planet’s South Pole.
“We see how vulnerable it is,” says Robbie Mallet, from the University of Manitoba and currently based on the Antarctic peninsula.
He says that the thin sea ice observed this year has made fieldwork even more difficult. “There’s a risk that (the ice) will break up and float through the sea with us on top,” Mallet explains.
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