The sea-ice extent in the Antarctic is far more variable than in the Arctic. In February, the mean area was 2.52 million km², the second-lowest reading since the advent of satellite measurement and on
In April 2017, sea-ice physicist Stefanie Arndt from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven proved once again that necessity is the mother of invention: she and her colleagues were wondering how
The sea-ice extent in the Antarctic is slowly but surely nearing its seasonal minimum, which we expect to see roughly a month from now. With 3.36 million km² of pack ice covering the Antarctic contine
The record-breaking journey began when Stefanie Arndt and Leonard Rossmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven placed the buoy on the
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
This was a few thousand km 2 below the previous record low from 1997. The mean sea-ice extent for February, at 2.4 million km², was another historical low (Figure 2). This minimum is the result of ver
The sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic is a unique habitat for a host of organisms, which can be found on its surface, in the brine channels that permeate it, or on its underside, in the boundary lay
In contrast, the pack ice is now steadily growing in the Antarctic. This year, observations of the sea-ice extent development in both hemispheres reveal a trend clearly below the long-term average. Th
In the Arctic, the influence of the sunlight steadily increases until, on 21 June, the Polar Day begins north of the Arctic Circle and the sun never sets for several weeks on end. In the Antarctic, th
In addition to ice extent and thickness, ice age is an important parameter for the characterisation and formation of sea ice! After all, as sea ice ages, physical characteristics like thickness, salin
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