Latest news with #Nimbus-7
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Earth's sea ice hits all-time low, NASA satellites reveal
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New research from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado measured Arctic sea ice cover on March 22, during what should've been its annual peak. In conclusion, the agency reported seeing 5.53 million square miles (14.33 million square kilometers) of sea ice — for context, that's the lowest Arctic winter sea ice levels have ever been. To make matters worse, NASA scientists also discovered that, this year, summer ice in the Antarctic retreated to 764,000 square miles (1.98 million square kilometers) as of March 1, tying for "the second lowest minimum extent ever recorded there." The combined loss of sea ice in both polar regions has led to an all-time low for total sea ice on the planet. In mid-February 2025, ice coverage globally declined by over million square miles (2.5 million square kilometers) from what the average was prior to 2010. Altogether, the missing sea ice is now roughly the same size as the continental United States east of the Mississippi. "We're going to come into this next summer season with less ice to begin with," Linette Boisvert, an ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said in a statement. "It doesn't bode well for the future." "We're going to come into this next summer season with less ice to begin with," Linette Boisvert, an ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland said in a statement. "It doesn't bode well for the future." Sea ice that covers the Arctic plays a fundamental role in the region's ecosystem — for instance impacting the way animals breed and find food. And, with less sea ice in winter months, storms can generally become more severe and coastal erosion can increase. Sea ice reduction happens when more sea ice melts during the summer compared to what freezes during the winter. Last year was Earth's warmest year on record. The Global Carbon Project found that 2024 was also a record high for global carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Scientists find these measurements by using satellites that track natural radiation in the microwave range — the radiation is different for open water and sea ice. Historical data is also used, like data collected in the 1970s and 1980s with the Nimbus-7 satellite. Related Stories: — Arctic ice is melting faster than expected — and the culprit could be dust — How satellite data has proven climate change is a climate crisis — How climate change could make Earth's space junk problem even worse "It's not yet clear whether the Southern Hemisphere has entered a new norm with perennially low ice or if the Antarctic is in a passing phase that will revert to prior levels in the years to come," Walt Meier, an ice scientist with NSIDC, said in the same statement. But it's worth considering that sea ice this year has continued the downward trend scientists have been following for several decades.
Arab News
29-03-2025
- Science
- Arab News
Arctic sea ice hits lowest peak in satellite record, says US agency
Arctic sea ice forms and expands during the dark, frigid northern winter, reaching its seasonal high point in MarchIn recent years, less new ice has formed, and the accumulation of multi-year ice has steadily declinedWASHINGTON: This year's Arctic Sea ice peak is the lowest in the 47-year satellite record, according to data released by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) on Thursday, as the planet continues to swelter under the mounting effects of human-driven climate sea ice forms and expands during the dark, frigid northern winter, reaching its seasonal high point in March. But in recent years, less new ice has formed, and the accumulation of multi-year ice has steadily maximum sea ice level for 2025 was likely reached on March 22, measuring 14.33 million square kilometers (5.53 million square miles) — below the previous low of 14.41 million square kilometers set in 2017.'This new record low is yet another indicator of how Arctic sea ice has fundamentally changed from earlier decades,' said NSIDC senior research scientist Walt Meier in a statement.'But even more importantly than the record low is that this year adds yet another data point to the continuing long-term loss of Arctic sea ice in all seasons.'The Arctic record follows a near-record-low summer minimum in the Antarctic, where seasons are 2025 Antarctic sea ice minimum, reached on March 1, was just 1.98 million square kilometers, tying for the second-lowest annual minimum in the satellite record, alongside 2022 and Arctic and Antarctic sea ice cover — frozen ocean water that floats on the surface — plunged to a record low in mid-February, more than a million square miles below the pre-2010 average. That is an area larger than the entire country of Algeria.'We're going to come into this next summer season with less ice to begin with,' said Linette Boisvert, an ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 'It doesn't bode well for the future.'US scientists primarily monitor sea ice using satellites from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), which detect Earth's microwave open water and sea ice emit microwave energy differently, the contrast allows sea ice to stand out clearly in satellite imagery — even through cloud cover, which obscures traditional optical data is supplemented with historical records, including early observations from the Nimbus-7 satellite, which operated from 1978 to floating sea ice does not directly raise sea levels, its disappearance sets off a cascade of climate consequences, altering weather patterns, disrupting ocean currents, and threatening ecosystems and human reflective ice gives way to the darker ocean, more solar energy is absorbed rather than reflected back into space, accelerating both ice melt and global Arctic ice is also reshaping geopolitics, opening new shipping lanes and drawing geopolitical interest. Since taking office this year, US President Donald Trump has said his country must control Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory rich in mineral loss of polar ice spells disaster for numerous species, robbing polar bears, seals, and penguins of crucial habitat used for shelter, hunting, and year was the hottest on record, and the trend continues: 2025 began with the warmest January ever recorded, followed by the third-warmest predicts that La Nina weather conditions, which tend to cool global temperatures, are likely to give way to neutral conditions that would persist over the Northern Hemisphere regions are especially vulnerable to global warming, heating several times faster than the global mid-2023, only July 2024 fell below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, raising concerns that the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting long-term warming to 1.5C may be slipping out of reach.
