According to the US "Business Insider" website on the 17th, satellite images from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that the sea ice area in Antarctica hit a record low in mid-September. Earth's sea ice is declining in both the Arctic and Antarctic. In Antarctica, sea ice extent reached record lows at least twice in 2023, after record low levels were detected in 2017 and 2022.
As of the 17th, satellite data showed that there were only 16.892 million square kilometers of sea ice around Antarctica, which was 1.5 million square kilometers less than the average sea ice area in September and far lower than the previous Antarctic winter record low. The lost area is approximately five times the size of the British Isles. By comparison, the sea ice area detected on the same day in 1986 was 17.834 million square kilometers.
According to reports, Antarctica is affected by global warming in many ways. Since the 1950s, the average annual temperature in Antarctica has increased by 3.2°C, a warming rate that is more than three times the global average. Its oceans are also warming faster than the rest of the world, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Alliance. In the 1980s, Antarctica was losing an average of 40 billion tons of ice per year. By 2020, this number will expand more than six times to 252 billion tons per year.
The loss of land ice in Antarctica has caused sea levels to rise by 7.2 millimeters since the 1990s. Scientists warn that an unstable Antarctica could have a profound impact on Earth's climate, forcing global temperatures to rise with potentially devastating consequences for humanity.
Antarctica's vast ice sheet regulates Earth's temperature, its white surface reflecting the sun's energy back into the atmosphere and cooling the water beneath and near it. Experts say that without ice to cool the planet, Antarctica could transform from the planet's "refrigerator" to a "radiator."