Giant ice swirls were captured by NASA's satellite. The ice swirl stretched hundreds of miles in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia's P'yagina Peninsula.
Giant Ice Swirls in the Arctic
A massive chunk of melting sea ice is seen gracefully circling a Russian peninsula in the Arctic in a breathtaking new satellite photograph. The view is stunning but also serves as a melancholy warning of the repercussions of climate change, which are only getting worse, Space.com reported.
On May 28, NASA's Aqua satellite captured the glittering ice show as it whirled hundreds of miles around the Sea of Okhotsk, right off the coast of Russia's snow-covered P'yagina Peninsula. On June 12, NASA's Earth Observatory released the photograph.
Every year, ethereal white swirls can be seen. The ice swirls are created by melting sea ice pulled by ocean currents. The P'yagina Peninsula is a hotspot for these kinds of swirls because cold air and fresh water thrown into the sea by rivers help form especially thick sea ice, some of which can still be seen in the image hugging the peninsula's north coastline.
According to the Earth Observatory, when the sea ice melts in spring and summer, the fractured ice chunks are carried south by the wind into vortex-like ocean currents made by a collection of small islands situated south of the landmass' main point.
This type of ice swirl can take many different forms. In December 2022, a cold spell in the UK created a multitude of tiny ice swirls, or "ice pancakes," on Scotland's rivers, which were caused by eddies, which are tiny spiraling currents.
The larger Russian swirls occasionally travel as far south as Jap, lasting several months. The nation's northernmost island, Hokkaido, was home to four huge swirls in 2018, reaching more than 31 miles (50 kilometers) across, according to a story from the Japanese news outlet The Mainichi.
Since less sea ice forms in the Arctic throughout the winter and because what sea ice does form breaks up early due to the consequences of human-caused climate change, the swirls are also visible earlier each year.
Sea Ice Is Reportedly Decreasing
Each September, the Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum extent, the region where satellite sensors show that at least 15% of individual pixels are covered in ice. When compared to its typical extent from 1981 to 2010, the Arctic sea ice extent in September is now declining at a pace of 12.6% per decade, according to NASA Global Climate Change.
The Arctic's yearly maximum sea ice extent, or the point at which the biggest portion of the ocean's surface is covered by ice, was attained on March 6. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), this year's maximum extent was the sixth-lowest on record, indicating significantly less sea ice than usual. For unknown reasons, the Sea of Okhotsk's sea ice has since melted away more quickly than the rest of the Arctic.
A study released on Feb. 14 in the journal Atmosphere-Ocean revealed that sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk fell by around 9% everten10 year between 1979 and 2010.
Antarctica's sea ice is also vanishing. The world's most southerly continent witnessed a record-low minimum sea ice extent in February, marking the second year sea ice covering was at its thinnest.
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