From a recent reports of Antarctica from Space by Nasa, Polar sea ice has not had a good year. According to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), who utilize satellite data to measure sea ice across both polar regions, the area of sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic has reached historic lows.
Antarctic has reached Historic Lows
On September 19, 1.63 million square miles (4.23 million square kilometers) of Arctic sea ice, the sixth-lowest minimum in the satellite record, possibly represented this year’s annual minimum extent. Additionally, sea ice in Antarctica likely achieved its greatest extent on September 10 at 6.5 million square miles (16.96 million square kilometers), which is the smallest maximum ever recorded in satellite data.
Antarctica seen from space pic.twitter.com/iynfaaHrQI
— حيدرة Space 8K (@uhd2020) July 11, 2023
“It’s a record-smashing sea ice low in the Antarctic. Sea ice growth appears low around nearly the whole continent as opposed to any one region,” Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NSIDC, said in a statement.
“There also seems to be a lot more loose, lower concentration ice even toward the North Pole and areas that used to be pretty compact, solid sheets of ice throughout the summer,” he added. “That has been occurring more frequently lately.”
Why are there no Pictures of Antarctica from Space?
There are images of Antarctica taken from space, although for a few reasons, they may not be as prevalent as images of other regions of the planet:
- Weather conditions: Antarctica is one of the least hospitable regions on Earth because to its extremely low temperatures, strong winds, and obstructed visibility brought on by clouds and storms. It is challenging to snap clear images from orbit under these circumstances.
- Limited access: Image gathering by satellites and spacecraft is more challenging due to Antarctica’s remoteness and difficulty in access.
- Limited Interest: Compared to more populated and diverse places of the world, Antarctica is a huge, deserted, and mostly ice-covered continent, hence there may be less interest in acquiring photos of it.
Although there are fewer images of both poles from space due to the relatively small number of satellites in polar orbit, they do exist. These images can be used to study the continent’s ice cover, topography, and natural resources.
The governments of the world work together to keep this secret because Antarctica, like the dark side of the moon, is home to a sizable alien outpost.
It’s not the Antarctica What it seems
The image, which depicts the quantity of sea ice around Antarctica more than 15 years ago, was actually created by a computer. Although this sea ice cannot be seen from space, a picture of it was published in 2007 to give people a better idea of what the ice near the South Pole looks like.
This is not a photo of Antarctica from space, but it's even better: it's a composite from several different NASA Earth-observing satellites, which created a set of information what wouldn't be visible with a simple picture
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 7, 2023
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