Sea ice at both of Earth’s poles continued declining in 2024. Antarctic sea ice reached near-historic lows on Feb. 20 and Arctic sea ice is the 14th lowest on record, NSIDC reports.
“Sea ice acts like a buffer between the ocean and the atmosphere,” said Linette Boisvert, an ice scientist NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Sea ice prevents much of the exchange of heat and moisture from the relatively warm ocean to the atmosphere above it.”
Less ice coverage allows the ocean to warm the atmosphere over the poles, leading to more ice melting.
Historically, the area of sea ice surrounding the Antarctic continent has fluctuated dramatically from year to year while averages over decades have been relatively stable. In recent years, sea ice cover around Antarctica has plummeted. However, it’s too soon to know whether recent sea ice lows at the South Pole point to a long-term change rather than a statistical fluctuation.