Anomalies in #Antarctic sea ice concentration show the monthly variation from the long-term mean. This map from nilas.org shows more ➖ than ➕ anomalies for June. See the lack of sea ice in Bellingshausen Sea (arrowed), almost at summer ice levels in mid-winter!
This map from @NSIDC and @NASAEarth shows sea ice concentration on 17 June. The orange line is the typical extent for that day based on the average from 1981 to 2010. Some coastal regions are now ice-free where that has not been observed before.
The last decade has seen increased variability. Sea-ice area reached a record low in Feb 2023 following the previous record low in Feb 2022, and an extremely low summer avg in 2016/17. Is this shift in Antarctic sea ice a response to climate change? We need to find out @IPCC_CH.
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The massive currents swirling around Antarctica are a crucial driver of the global network of ocean currents that transport heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients around the world. How will this lifeline change on a warming planet?
[animation: @NASAViz]
3/9 Seawater freezes ➡️ rejects brine ➡️ dense cold salty oxygen-rich water sinks to form Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) ➡️ pumps oxygen into the deep sea ➡️ ‘ventilates’ abyss 😲 while only forming in 4 locations, AABW fills the deepest 40% of the global ocean.
[graphic: @WHOI]
Three great @AntarcticSciAus Research Associate positions in @UTAS_ Hobart: paleo ice-sheet modeller (closes 5 June); magnetotelluric geophysicist (closes 11 June); and ice-sheet modelling and data science (closes 26 June).
Please share and/or apply!
Details at links below 🔽
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Each spring in the Southern Ocean, sometimes seen from space by @NASA satellites, swirling blooms of solar-powered phytoplankton turn CO2 into food for everything else. While we know the blooms are critical to the biological carbon pump, what triggers them is up for debate.
3/6 They use data from 7114 profiles from 56 BGC-Argo floats circling #Antarctica to measure the biogeochemistry of the Southern Ocean south of 60°S, like this by @SOCCOMProject. See how the @bgc_argo float rights itself in the water, ready to start a mission of at least 3 years.
🫁 It’s like you can see the oceans breathing. As seasons change, chlorophyll levels from tiny marine plants ripple around the planet. Phytoplankton use chlorophyll to absorb carbon dioxide to make food. This @NASA map gives insights to the oceanic carbon cycle. Read on...🧵
2/7 🔃 Crucial for ocean carbon cycling is the 'biological pump', where carbon is taken from the atmosphere by life and put into storage in the deep. It turns out that tiny phytoplankton in the @_SouthernOcean play an outsized role in stopping the planet from overheating.
3/7 🌊 The Southern Ocean is central to slowing the rate of global heating. It accounts for about 40% of the ocean's annual absorption of human-made carbon! So to understand its role in global climate, we really need to understand the influence of biology on this carbon sink (C).