नवीनतम
Antarctic sea ice reaches lowest winter extent on record
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: Antarctic sea ice has reached its maximum extent after the cold dark winter months. According to the preliminary data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the maximum extent remained below 17 million square kilometers (6.56 million square miles) for the first time in the satellite record (1979 onwards). This is a full million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) below the previous record low in 2022 – more than the size of Egypt.
Antarctic sea ice has reached its maximum extent after the cold dark winter months. According to the preliminary data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), the maximum extent remained below 17 million square kilometers (6.56 million square miles) for the first time in the satellite record (1979 onwards). This is a full million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) below the previous record low in 2022 – more than the size of Egypt.
As evidence of the impacts, Emperor penguin colonies experienced unprecedented breeding failure in a region of Antarctica in the central and eastern Bellingshausen Sea where there was total sea ice loss in 2022, according to the British Antarctic Survey. The discovery supports predictions that over 90% of emperor penguin colonies will be quasi-extinct by the end of the century, based on current global warming trends, it said.
The researchers said there was a high probability that no chicks had survived from four of the five known emperor penguin colonies. This was based on satellite images that showed the loss of sea ice at breeding sites, well before chicks would have developed waterproof feathers.
