ANTARCTIC SEA ICE IS AT A RECORD LOW
Antarctic sea-ice coverage was at a record low in February 2022. But the amount of sea ice varies considerably each year and climate change is not necessarily to blame. On 25 February, sea-ice extent around Antarctica shrank to less than 772,000 square miles for the first time since scientists began recording it in 1979. While warming global temperatures may be a factor, sea ice is highly variable. The shrinking is likely natural, and partly due to strong winds pushing some sea ice farther north into warmer waters.
Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean. Unlike icebergs and other ice formations that break away from land, sea ice forms on the ocean and is usually covered in snow. The new data captured the annual late-summer minimum sea-ice extent, which gives a measurement of the area of ocean that has sea ice when coverage is at its lowest for the year after the ice melts. Sea ice varies from year to year, and researchers have not found a statistically significant trend in one direction or another using satellite data.
This year was the lowest minimum sea-ice extent on record, but the highest minimum sea-ice extent was recorded in 2015. Satellite images of the Arctic show a clear, linear sea-ice decline over the past 44 years. A comparison of satellite records from February 1979 and February 2022 showed that Arctic sea-ice extent has declined by 703,000 square miles.