MOSCOW, Oct 10 The amount of ice at the Earth's poles continues to decline — in Antarctica there is a record in the entire history of observations, in the Arctic — the fourth minimum in 40 years, the press service of the Arctic and Antarctic reported research institute.
“At the end of winter, Antarctica is experiencing a record low amount of ice cover in the entire history of observations. In the Arctic, the current year ranks 4th in the rank of summer minimums over a 40-year series of observations,” the report says.
Autumn has begun in the northern hemisphere, and spring has begun in the southern hemisphere. This means that in Antarctica there is now a period of maximum development of the ice cover, and in the Arctic, on the contrary, there is a period of maximum melting and destruction of ice.
According to the institute's scientists, in the winter season of 2023, the area of ice cover in Antarctica was extremely small and amounted to 19.04 million square kilometers. This is a record low for all years of observation, 1.4 million square kilometers or 7.5% less than normal.
In the Arctic, in the first half of the summer, the ice cover melted and collapsed quite slowly, but starting in August, the processes of ice destruction began much faster. As a result of summer melting, the ice area as of September 2023 has decreased to 4.3 million square kilometers, which is 27% less than normal. Ice extent in the Arctic decreased more significantly only in 2012, 2019 and 2020.