“And“It’s so far removed from anything we’ve seen that it’s almost astonishing,” Walter Mayer, an expert who monitors sea ice at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, told the British news outlet.
In line with this observation, polar experts warn that Antarctica’s instability could have long-term consequences.
The massive expanse of ice in Antarctica regulates the planet’s temperature, with the white surface reflecting the sun’s energy back into the atmosphere and cooling the water below and near it, scientists explain, according to the BBC.
Without ice cooling the planet, Antarctica could turn from Earth’s refrigerator into a cooler, experts say.
The amount of ice floating on the surface of the Southern Ocean now amounts to less than 17 million square kilometers – that’s 1.5 million square kilometers less sea ice than last September’s average and well below the previous winter’s record lows.
The decline corresponds to an ice-free zone about five times the size of the British Isles, say experts, some of whom are not optimistic about a significant recovery of sea ice.
Scientists are still trying to determine all the factors that led to the decline in sea ice this year, but studying trends in Antarctica has historically been difficult.
In a year in which several global and ocean temperature records were broken, some scientists insist that sea ice decline is the metric that policymakers and the public should care about.
“We can see how vulnerable (the Antarctic Peninsula) is,” Robbie Mallett, of the University of Manitoba, who conducts research in the region, told the BBC.
He explained that this year’s thin sea ice, which already faces isolation, extreme cold and strong winds, has made his team’s work more difficult. He warned that “there is a danger of it disintegrating and going with us to the sea.”
Sea ice forms in the continent’s winter (March to October), before largely melting in the summer, and is part of an interconnected system that also consists of icebergs, land ice and massive ice shelves.
Experts say that sea ice acts as a protective layer for the ice covering the Earth and prevents ocean temperatures from rising.
Caroline Holmes, from the British Antarctic Survey, explained to the BBC that the effects of reduced sea ice could become apparent as the season moves into summer – when there is the potential for an “unstoppable feedback loop of ice melt”.
As more sea ice disappears, it reveals dark areas in the ocean that absorb sunlight rather than reflect it, meaning thermal energy is added to the water, which in turn melts more ice.
They noted that this phenomenon could add more heat to the planet, disrupting Antarctica’s usual role as a global temperature regulator.
The latest data indicates that since the 1990s, the loss of land ice from Antarctica by 7.2 mm has contributed to sea level rise.
Scientists say even modest rises in sea levels could lead to dangerously high storm surges that could devastate coastal communities, with potentially catastrophic effects for millions of people around the world.
Read also: The European Union reduces the use of chemicals that affect the ozone layer in 2022
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