There’s currently less sea ice in the Antarctic than at any time in the forty years since the beginning of satellite observation. In early February 2023, only 2.20 million square kilometers of the Southern Ocean were covered with sea ice. January 2023 had already set a new record for its monthly mean extent, even though the melting phase in the Southern Hemisphere continues until the end of February. The rapid decline over the past six years is quite remarkable, since the ice cover hardly changed at all in the thirty-five years before. It’s still unclear whether we’re seeing the beginning of a rapid end to summer sea ice in the Antarctic, or if it’s merely the beginning of a new phase characterized by low but still stable sea ice cover in the summer. The Antarctic sea ice shows a declining trend of 2.6 percent per decade.
Climate Crisis Blog
