Extents for 2017 and 2018 were the lowest on record for both winter maximum and summer minimum. Select a month and year from the popup menus to compare two maps side-by-side. Data are from NSIDC. [11] You might wonder how Antarctic sea ice could be increasing while global warming is raising the planet’s average surface temperature. Snow and Ice The monthly Sea Ice Index provides a quick look at Antarctic-wide changes in sea ice. We also reiterate here the promise that our team of reporters, copy editors, fact-checkers, designers, and photographers will deliver quality journalism that stays away from vested interest and political propaganda. So overall, average Antarctic ice thickness is much lower than Arctic sea ice. The eastern Ross Sea region has shown a modest increase in ice extent over the same period. Captain James Cook. The cyclone is likely to have contributed to the reduced loss in ice extent by spreading out the existing ice over a wider area. Where sea ice does melt away completely in the Antarctic summer, the ice’s absence can have cascading effects. It extends from the far north in the winter and retreats to almost the coastline every summer. Overall, the long-term trend in Antarctic sea ice is nearly flat. Sea ice that comes from the Southern Ocean melts from the bottom instead of the surface like Arctic ice because it is covered in snow on top. Who we are, what we do and organisational news. Antarctic sea ice extent is currently 13 th lowest on record; as is normal, there are regions of both below- and above-average sea ice extent. The increase in sea ice area probably has a number of causes. The (then-record) 2012 Antarctic sea ice extent; compare with the yellow outline, which shows the median sea ice extent in September from 1979 to 2000. September, October and November) 2016 saw a rapid decline in Antarctic sea ice. From 1979–2017, Antarctic-wide sea ice extent showed a slightly positive trend overall, although some regions experienced declines. On Thin Ice: In 2020, it was 5.08 million sq. Over the past decade, Antarctic sea ice extents have shown great variability, with both record-high winter maximum extents and record-low ones. Sea ice surrounding Antarctica reached a new record high extent this year, covering more of the southern oceans than it has since scientists began a long-term satellite record to map sea ice extent in the late 1970s. NSIDC reported that the 2014 extent rose nearly … By February 2016, just a small fraction of that ice remained, reaching an annual minimum extent of 2.6 million square kilometers (1 million square miles)—the ninth lowest in the satellite record. Meteor. For three consecutive Septembers from 2012 to 2014, satellites observed new record highs for winter sea ice extent. km., the third-lowest since 1979. Atmospheric patterns, partly influenced by greenhouse gas emissions, are also at work. To enable wide dissemination of news that is in public interest, we have increased the number of articles that can be read free, and extended free trial periods. How unusual were the Antarctic sea ice conditions that trapped a research ship on Christmas Eve 2013? Because it forms at lower, warmer latitudes, less Antarctic sea ice survives the summer. It is a source for consistently processed ice extent and concentration images and data values since 1979. The black line traces the 1981-2010 average, and the gray shading shows the range of variability (2 standard deviations from the mean). One reason may be that other atmospheric changes are softening the influence of global warming on Antarctica. A statistical prediction based on extrapolating the long-term trend gives a September extent of 4.27 ± 1.06 million square km. That’s smaller than the previous three years, but falls just about in the middle of maximum extents measured since 1979. Recent changes in wind patterns, which are connected to regional changes in the number of extratropical cyclones and anticyclones,[3] around Antarctica have advected the sea ice farther north in some areas and not as far north in others (see images). Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA), NASA Distributed Active Archive Center at NSIDC (NSIDC DAAC), All About Arctic Climatology & Meteorology, Sea Ice Index (Passive microwave satellite data), MASIE (Daily sea ice extent, multi-source). Unlike the Arctic, where the downward trend is consistent in all sectors, in all months, and in all seasons, the Antarctic picture is more complex. Daily extent images show ice extent at concentrations greater than 15% for a given day with an outline of the typical extent for that day based on a 30-year (1981-2010) median (orange line). 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