By Sydney Dalske
The sea ice in the Antarctic is at a historic low. Now there is a chunk of sea ice the size of Argentina missing. Annually the ice levels usually dip down after February when it has its summer and highest temperatures, but this year it has not returned as it is supposed to over its winter.
Sea ice itself is frozen ocean water that both forms and melts away in the ocean. The Antarctic Sea ice had been stable up until 2016 when it began its first major decline and that continues to this last summer of 2023 has been a record low for sea ice levels.
During August of ‘23, there was a new discovery, that the level of sea ice was about 1.5 million miles less than average. Scientists are trying to figure out how the massive piece of ice went missing and where it is.
Below is a graph of the amount of Antarctic sea ice per month of each year since the 1980s up till now. The data is measured by satellite. The line depicted for this year clearly shows the massive decline in the amount of ice present.
Unlike the Arctic where the sea ice has been consistently decreasing, the isolated continent of Antarctica has had massive swings of record highs and record lows recently which makes it hard to see how it is being impacted by global warming.
But one theory stated by Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, says that it may be due to westerly winds that are linked to planet-heating pollution.
While melting sea ice does not affect sea levels, as we hear about most melting ice, it does leave larger glaciers exposed to warm ocean waters. This is partially due to sea ice’s ability to reflect the sun’s rays, and when it is not present those rays are able to be absorbed into deeper ocean water.
Overall, this will lead to high levels of heat in the Antarctic and more record low level winters in the future. Global warming is not a surprise to us at this point, but this is a new factor being affected that environmental scientists will have to take into consideration.
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