The area of sea ice cover in Antarctica is shrinking and less so in the last 40 years. Photo/University of Bremen
Currently, as of early February 2023, only 2.20 million square kilometers of the Southern Ocean is covered in sea ice. Though it wasn’t until January 2023 that scientists set a new record for the average monthly area it loud is 3.22 million square kilometers.
“On 8 February 2023, the area of Antarctic sea ice was recorded at 2.20 million square kilometers, or decreased below the record minimum from 2022 of 2.27 million square kilometers (on 24 February 2022),” said Prof Christian Haas, Head of Section Sea Ice Physics at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Marine and Polar Research (AWI), quoted from the newswise page, Saturday (11/2/2023).
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He added that the melting of sea ice in Antarctica will most likely continue in the second half of this month. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Bremen analyzed the Sea Ice Portal situation, and the melting phase in the Southern Hemisphere continued until the end of February.
The expedition team currently aboard the RV Polarstern has just reported near-ice-free conditions in its current research area, in the Bellingshausen Sea. Melt has been ongoing since December 2022, mainly in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas in West Antarctica; the first time it was almost ice free.
“I’ve never seen such an extreme no-ice situation here before. The continental shelf, the size of Germany, is now completely ice-free,” said expedition leader and AWI geophysicist Prof Karsten Gohl.
Throughout the year, Antarctic sea ice generally reaches its maximum in September or October and its minimum in February. In some areas, sea ice melts completely in summer.
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In winter, the cold climate across Antarctica encourages the rapid formation of new sea ice. At maximum, sea ice cover in Antarctica is generally between 18 and 20 million square kilometers. In summer, it shrinks to approximately 3 million square kilometers, displaying annual variability far more natural than Arctic ice.
Analysis conducted by the Sea Ice Portal team, shows that, throughout January 2023, sea ice extent was at its lowest recorded level since the start of records in 1979. In terms of its long-term development, Antarctic sea ice shows a downward trend of 2.6 percent per decade. This is the eighth year in a row that January’s average sea ice extent has been below the long-term trend.
(wib)
