![]() Beyond the Bellingshausen Sea and past the Amundsen Sea, lies the Ross Sea – where much of the sea ice growth is occurring. There, the temperatures are warming, and in the Bellingshausen Sea just to the west of the peninsula the sea ice is shrinking. One clue, Parkinson said, could be found around the Antarctic Peninsula – a finger of land stretching up toward South America. Researchers are investigating a number of other possible explanations as well. With no northern barrier around the whole perimeter of the ice, the ice can easily expand if conditions are favorable,” he said. “Part of it is just the geography and geometry. And in the Antarctic, where sea ice circles the continent and covers such a large area, it doesn’t take that much additional ice extent to set a new record. ![]() Sometimes those weather patterns will bring cooler air to some areas. Why are these trends going in opposite directions?Ĭredits: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy NgĪ warming climate changes weather patterns, said Walt Meier, a research scientist at Goddard. This year, Antarctic sea ice reached a record maximum extent while the Arctic reached a minimum extent in the ten lowest since satellite records began. 22, when sea ice covered 7.76 million square miles (20.11 million square kilometers), according to NSIDC. This year’s five-day average maximum was reached on Sept. 20, according to NSIDC data, when the sea ice covered 7.78 million square miles (20.14 million square kilometers). The single-day maximum extent this year was reached on Sept. The average maximum extent between 19 was 7.23 million square miles (18.72 million square kilometers). The ice extent stayed above this benchmark extent for several days. 19 this year, for the first time ever since 1979, Antarctic sea ice extent exceeded 7.72 million square miles (20 million square kilometers), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Since the late 1970s, the Arctic has lost an average of 20,800 square miles (53,900 square kilometers) of ice a year the Antarctic has gained an average of 7,300 square miles (18,900 sq km). Sea ice as a whole is decreasing as expected, but just like with global warming, not every location with sea ice will have a downward trend in ice extent,” Parkinson said. “The planet as a whole is doing what was expected in terms of warming. Just as the temperatures in some regions of the planet are colder than average, even in our warming world, Antarctic sea ice has been increasing and bucking the overall trend of ice loss. Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, has referred to changes in sea ice coverage as a microcosm of global climate change. The new Antarctic sea ice record reflects the diversity and complexity of Earth’s environments, said NASA researchers. The upward trend in the Antarctic, however, is only about a third of the magnitude of the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. 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. Credits: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/Cindy Starr
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