In a chilling third year of unprecedented polar conditions, Antarctica's sea ice levels are expected to reach new records this month as cold airs and unabating winds have frozen ocean water into more than 7.6 million square miles of Antarctic sea ice this southern winter, according to a new report from the Antarctic National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). But while sea ice levels rise in the south, the northern summer has proven a warm one, with record-breaking sea ice loss in the Arctic at the other end of the spectrum.
Calculated via simple algorithms and measured by satellite image, sea-ice levels are measures of ocean areas wherein ice concentration is at least 15 percent or higher. And though in the polar regions large solid glaciers of ice are fairly common, most sea ice levels measured are relative to the freezing of sea water at the surface.
With several weeks left of the southern winter, wherein sea ice levels will continue to grow, Antarctica will likely not only surpass but reach a far greater record, with only 88,800 square miles of ice separating this year's high marks with the 2013 record.
Meanwhile to the North, where the seas are just ending their summer, sea ice in the Arctic is dwindling down to the sixth lowest minimum in the record history. Reaching its summer low this past Monday, Sept. 15, the NSIDC reports that the Arctic ice cap only had a sea ice level of 1.96 million square miles.
While the new heights and record lows have become an increasingly common occurrence, climate change is at forefront of not only ecologist's concerns, but also those of the United Nations. Holding the 2014 Climate Summit in New York this coming week, researchers and politicians alike will flock to the city to bring the global climate issue to front pages of nearly every news organization.
But while the news of the records and all-time lows may be amongst key points discussed at the proceedings, researchers suggest that these high and low numbers are not something to cause too much concern for the immediate future.
"In the short term, it seems like there hasn't been much ice loss in the past couple of years, but I think it's still very much within the long-term trend of declining sea ice" chairman of the University of Washington's Polar Science Center, Axel Schweiger says. "One shouldn't necessarily expect every year to be a record low."
