March 1, 2018
Cosmos Editorial
The sun hangs low in the sky over the water in this photo taken off the coast of Antarctica.
The Antarctic sea ice shrunk to its second lowest extent on record over the 2017/18 summer, with the latest satellite data showing a total of only 2.15 million km2 surrounding the icy continent. The lowest point was reached on February 18 and the amount of ice has once again begun to climb, according to Rob Massom from the Australian Antarctic Division.
This is slightly more than the previous year’s record low of 2.07 million km2, which was approximately 27 per cent below the average annual minimum since 1979.
