Record low Antarctic sea ice extent could signal shift

PARIS: Sea ice around Antarctica shrank to the smallest extent on record in February, five years after the previous record low, researchers said on Tuesday, suggesting Earth’s frozen continent may be less impervious to climate change than thought.

In late February, the ocean area covered by ice slipped below the symbolic barrier of two million square kilometres for the first time since satellite records began in 1978, according to a study in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Researchers found that the key driver of ice loss was change in temperature, though shifts in ice mass also played a lesser role. Both the North and South pole regions have warmed by roughly three degrees Celsius compared to late 19th-century levels, three times the global average.