The sea ice in the polar regions is an important indicator for global climate change, as the two regions are essentially our planet’s early warning system. The loss of sea ice is a direct effect of gl
After the summer minimum in the Antarctic, sea-ice growth rebounding sluggishly On 31 March 2024, the Antarctic sea-ice extent, at 4.52 million square kilometres, reached its maximum for the month of
Development in the Arctic The slight upward trend following the Arctic minimum continued in early 2024; although the sea-ice extent was below the mean value for the years 1981 – 2010 at the beginning
In the polar regions, sea ice follows a distinctly seasonal cycle, and every year roughly 15 million square kilometres of ice are formed and melt in the Antarctic. But this winter, the ice growth has
This year, sea-ice development in the Antarctic is progressing extremely slowly and, after May, once again reached a record-low monthly sea-ice extent in June. At 11.23 million km², the monthly mean s
After the Antarctic sea-ice extent reached an all-time low in February 2023, new sea ice has only slowly formed in the months since. Particularly in the Bellingshausen Sea, uncharacteristically for th
In the Antarctic, the month of February is considered to be high summer in terms of the seasonal decline in sea-ice extent. The extent reaches its lowest point in the year, while in the course of the
“On 8 February 2023, the Antarctic sea-ice extent had reached 2.2 million km² - less than the previous record minimum from 2022. Since the sea-ice melting in the Antarctic will most likely continue in
But this expedition won’t proceed entirely as planned, either – like so many things in the on-going coronavirus pandemic. In mid-December, the research ship Polarstern, with the new overwintering team
While the Arctic sea ice continues to decline, a glance at the Southern Ocean reveals a different picture: in recent years and decades, the sea-ice extent has increased slightly – albeit with clearly
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