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The Antarctic sea ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter.It peaks (~18 × 10^6 km 2) during September (comparable to the surface area of Pluto), which marks the end of austral winter, and retreats to a minimum (~3 × 10^6 km 2) in February.
[74] [75] [76] According to one study, if the Paris Agreement is followed and global warming is limited to 2 °C (3.6 °F), the loss of ice in Antarctica will continue at the 2020 rate for the rest of the 21st century, but if a trajectory leading to 3 °C (5.4 °F) is followed, Antarctica ice loss will accelerate after 2060 and start adding 0.5 ...
The polar regions include the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean. The Arctic Ocean covers 14,000,000 km 2 (5,400,000 sq mi). [ 13 ] In the spring the ice covers an area of 5,000,000–8,000,000 km 2 (1,900,000–3,100,000 sq mi) and in the winter it is twice that.
The geography of Antarctica is dominated by its south polar location and, thus, by ice. The Antarctic continent , located in the Earth 's southern hemisphere , is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle .
Nearly all of Antarctica is covered by a sheet of ice that is, on average, at least 1,500 m (5,000 ft) thick. Antarctica contains 90% of the world's ice and more than 70% of its fresh water. If all the land-ice covering Antarctica were to melt—around 30 × 10 ^ 6 km 3 (7.2 × 10 ^ 6 cu mi) of ice—the seas would rise by over 60 m (200 ft). [22]
In 2024, the winter solstice falls on Dec. 21, 2024, at 4:20 a.m. EST. Astronomical winter Why meteorological and astronomical winter start on 2 different dates Skip to main content
The colder, stabler East Antarctica had been experiencing cooling until the 2000s. [22] [23] Around Antarctica, the Southern Ocean has absorbed more oceanic heat than any other ocean, [24] and has seen strong warming at depths below 2,000 m (6,600 ft). [25]: 1230 Around the West Antarctic, the ocean has warmed by 1 °C (1.8 °F) since 1955. [21]
The first day of winter is Thursday, December 21, 2023. The first day of winter occurs on the winter solstice, the astronomical first day of winter. This year, the solstice will be at 10:27 p.m. EST.