'Everyone should be concerned': Antarctic sea ice reaches lowest levels ever recorded

Since the continent has enough ice to raise sea levels by many meters if it were to melt, polar scientists are looking for answers. For 44 years, satellites have helped scientists track how much ice is floating in the ocean around Antarctica's 18,000 km long coast. The continent's marginal waters see a massive shift each year, with sea ice peaking in September at around 18 square km and falling to just above 2 square km. But in those four decades of satellite observations, the continent has never had less ice than last week. "At the end of January, we knew it was only a matter of time. It wasn't even a close issue," says Dr. Will Hobbs, an Antarctic sea ice expert from the University of Tasmania in partnership with the Australian Antarctic Program. "We're seeing less ice everywhere. It's a circumpolar event.” In the summer of 2022 in the Southern Hemisphere, sea ice extent fell to 92.25 m square km on February 1 – an all-time low based on satellite observations that began in 1979. But by February 12 this year, 2022 record broken. The ice continued to melt, reaching a new record low of 79.25m sq km on 1 February, surpassing the previous record by 136,000 km² - an area twice the size of Tasmania. In the spring of the Southern Hemisphere, strong winds blew ice over West Antarctica. At the same time, Hobbs says that large areas in the west of the continent have barely recovered from the previous year's losses. “Because sea ice is so reflective, it's hard to melt it from sunlight. But if you get open water behind it, it can melt the ice underneath,” says Hobbs. Hobbs and other scientists said the new record - the third time it has been broken in six years - has started a search for answers among polar scientists. The fate of Antarctica – especially the land ice – is important because the continent has enough ice to raise sea levels by many meters if it were to melt.