Explore the latest developments concerning Antarctic sea ice.
Antarctic sea ice defied global warming for decades – now, hidden ocean heat is breaking through
For decades, Antarctica seemed to defy global warming. Since satellites began monitoring the poles in the late 1970s, the seasonal growth and retreat of Antarctic sea ice – frozen seawater that expands around the continent each winter – appeared remarkably resilient. It was often described as the “heartbeat of the planet”.
Unlike the Arctic, where sea ice declined rapidly as the planet warmed, Antarctic sea ice showed little overall loss. It even expanded between 2007 and 2015. But that resilience has now broken.
Since 2015, Antarctic sea ice has declined sharply. In 2023, winter sea ice extent fell to record lows — so far below the long-term average that scientists considered it an event with roughly a one-in-3.5-million probability of occurring by chance.
A ‘triple whammy’ of chaos has triggered a downward spiral in Antarctica, scientists discover
For decades, it seemed Antarctica might be insulated from the kind of rapid ice melting unfolding in the Arctic. But in 2015, that changed when the sea ice fringing this vast, icy continent stopped expanding and began to decline dramatically. Now, scientists say they have figured out why this happened â and their findings spell deep trouble for a region whose fate affects us all.
Antarctic sea ice has been on a steep downward trend for nearly a decade. It reached a record low in 2022 and again in 2023, when it dropped to just 691,000 square miles, equivalent to an area of missing ice larger than Greenland compared to average levels. This year saw a higher amount of sea ice at the height of the Southern Hemispher summer, but it was still at its 16th lowest level in nearly five decades of record keeping.
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Antarctica sea ice collapse driven by triple whammy of climate chaos, scientists find
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Antarctica is being ravaged by a triple-whammy of climate chaos that has melted sea ice to record lows, a new study has revealed. For decades, the frozen wilderness at the bottom of the world defied global warming trends, with ice levels actually growing—until 2015 when it suddenly reversed.
The study led by the University of Southampton shows that a series of compounding events flipped the Southern Ocean—which surrounds Antarctica—out of balance, dragging unusually warm, salty water from the deep up to the surface.
For more detailed information, explore updates concerning Antarctic sea ice.