{"id":1183476,"date":"2023-09-19T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1183476"},"modified":"2023-09-19T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T20:00:00","slug":"antarctic-sea-ice-at-mind-blowing-low-alarms-experts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1183476","title":{"rendered":"Antarctic Sea-Ice at &#039;Mind-Blowing&#039; Low Alarms Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The sea-ice surrounding Antarctica is well below any previous recorded winter level, satellite data shows, a worrying new benchmark for a region that once seemed resistant to global warming. BBC: &#8220;It&#8217;s so far outside anything we&#8217;ve seen, it&#8217;s almost mind-blowing,&#8221; says Walter Meier, who monitors sea-ice with the National Snow and Ice Data Center. An unstable Antarctica could have far-reaching consequences, polar experts warn. Antarctica&#8217;s huge ice expanse regulates the planet&#8217;s temperature, as the white surface reflects the Sun&#8217;s energy back into the atmosphere and also cools the water beneath and near it. <\/p>\n<p>Without its ice cooling the planet, Antarctica could transform from Earth&#8217;s refrigerator to a radiator, experts say. The ice that floats on the Antarctic Ocean&#8217;s surface now measures less than 17 million sq km &#8211; that is 1.5 million sq km of sea-ice less than the September average, and well below previous winter record lows. That&#8217;s an area of missing ice about five times the size of the British Isles. Dr Meier is not optimistic that the sea-ice will recover to a significant degree. <\/p>\n<p>Scientists are still trying to identify all the factors that led to this year&#8217;s low sea-ice &#8211; but studying trends in Antarctica has historically been challenging. In a year when several global heat and ocean temperature records have broken, some scientists insist the low sea-ice is the measure to pay attention to. &#8220;We can see how much more vulnerable it is,&#8221; says Dr Robbie Mallett, of the University of Manitoba, who is based on the Antarctic peninsula. Already braving isolation, extreme cold and powerful winds, this year&#8217;s thin sea-ice has made his team&#8217;s work even more difficult. &#8220;There is a risk that it breaks off and drifts out to sea with us on it,&#8221; Dr Mallett says.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<div class=\"share_submission\" style=\"position:relative\">\n<a class=\"slashpop\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Antarctic+Sea-Ice+at+'Mind-Blowing'+Low+Alarms+Experts%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F23%2F09%2F19%2F1816221%2F%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter%26utm_medium%3Dtwitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/twitter_icon_large-329.png\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a class=\"slashpop\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F23%2F09%2F19%2F1816221%2Fantarctic-sea-ice-at-mind-blowing-low-alarms-experts%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/facebook_icon_large-165.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.slashdot.org\/story\/23\/09\/19\/1816221\/antarctic-sea-ice-at-mind-blowing-low-alarms-experts?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&amp;utm_medium=feed\">Read more of this story<\/a> at Slashdot.<\/p>\n<p>&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource: Slashdot &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/news.slashdot.org\/story\/23\/09\/19\/1816221\/antarctic-sea-ice-at-mind-blowing-low-alarms-experts?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&amp;utm_medium=feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Antarctic Sea-Ice at &#8216;Mind-Blowing&#8217; Low Alarms Experts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The sea-ice surrounding Antarctica is well below any previous recorded winter level, satellite data shows, a worrying new benchmark for a region that once seemed resistant to global warming. BBC: &#8220;It&#8217;s so far outside anything we&#8217;ve seen, it&#8217;s almost mind-blowing,&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1183476\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1183477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,110],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-1183476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slashdot","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-slashdot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1183476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1183476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1183476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1183476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}