Every summer, most of the sea ice near Antarctica melts away, but its saltiness leaves a permanent record that scientists can trace back for millennia.
Antarctica
Posted inScience Updates
A Vital Resource Supporting Antarctic Research
The U.S. Antarctic Program Data Center is providing new services to help scientists document, preserve, and disseminate their research and to facilitate reusability of a wide range of valuable data.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Taking the Temperature of Antarctica’s Crust
How do you measure the geothermal heat flux in a continent covered by an ice-sheet? A new study uses correlations of diverse global observables and produces a heat flow map of the entire Antarctica.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Robot Measures Air-Sea Carbon Dioxide Exchange in Southern Ocean
Unique air and ocean surface observations of the Southern Ocean from a 22,000 km, 196-day circumnavigation around Antarctica by an Uncrewed Surface Vehicle.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Antarctic Lava Yields Clues to Earth’s Past Magnetic Field
A new analysis suggests that a widely accepted approximation of ancient magnetic field strength may be less accurate for the past 5 million years than previously thought.
Posted inNews
Gravity Data Reveal Unexpected Antarctic Ice Variations
A new analysis of long-term satellite records shows the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is unexpectedly dependent on fluctuations in weather. This study may improve models of how much sea levels will rise.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Antarctica in a Changing Climate
The impacts of the Antarctic Ice Sheet response to climate change will have global consequences for millions living near the coast. It’s just a matter of when.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Warming in the Antarctic Stratosphere Affects Tropical Weather
Rapid temperature spikes in the stratosphere above Antarctica can influence weather and spark cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere’s tropics.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Characteristics of Polar Sea Ice in Latest Climate Models
Sea ice area in CMIP6 is similar to previous versions while its sensitivity to external forcing is subtly different and closer to observations, but still not in step with global surface temperature.
Posted inNews
Emerging Technologies Help Scientists Tune In to Krill
Acoustic tools identify the population of “the most important fishery in the Southern Ocean.”