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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

The annual development of the sea-ice extent is one of the most important parameters for describing the seasonal progression of sea-ice development. It is particularly relevant when combined and compa

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

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

“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

These include data on sea-ice formation and dynamics in the Antarctic pack-ice belt. When the Federal Republic of Germany became a signing member of the Antarctic Treaty in 1979 and established the Ge

Not until the end of the month did the sea-ice extent substantially decline, dropping below two standard deviations from the average for the period 1981 – 2010. At the same time, the summer solstice w

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