अंटार्कटिका – Page 2 – आवारा मुसाफिर

Record low sea ice cover in the Antarctic

February 11, 2023843 Views

Sea ice extent in the Southern Ocean now the lowest since the beginning of satellite observation forty years ago There is currently less sea ice in the Antarctic than at any time in the forty years since the beginning of satellite observation: in early February 2023, only 2.20 million square kilometres of the Southern Ocean were covered with sea ice. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the University of Bremen analyse the situation for the Sea Ice Portal. January 2023 had already set a new record for its monthly mean extent (3.22 million square kilometres), even though the melting phase in the Southern Hemisphere continues until the end of February. The current expedition team on board RV Polarstern has just reported virtually ice-free conditions in its current research...

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Ultrarunner makes first running ascent of Antarctica’s Mount Vinson

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 19, 2023964 Views

Fernanda Maciel scaled continent's highest peak in record 6h 40m time Brazilian ultrarunner Fernanda Maciel made history on Christmas Eve, 2022 when she scaled one of the legendary 'Seven Summits' in world-record time in the hostile environment of Antarctica – outpacing all known previous climbers with what is believed to be the summit's first running ascent - then launched the dicey descent with barely moments to catch her breath. Fernanda Maciel is seen during the project 7 Summits in the Antarctica on December 20, 2022. Photo: Jordan Manoukian / Red Bull Content Pool Mount Vinson normally requires a minimum of five to seven days to climb via mountaineering or ski mountaineering, but Maciel was determined to ascend by running - an unprecedented attempt. A native of Minas Ger...

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New cause of melting Antarctic ice shelves identified

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 23, 2022412 Views

Existing conservation efforts insufficient to protect Antarctic ecosystems Researchers have discovered a process that can contribute to the melting of ice shelves in the Antarctic. An international team of scientists found that adjacent ice shelves play a role in causing instability in others downstream. The study, led by the University of East Anglia in the UK, also identified that a small ocean gyre - a system of circulating ocean currents - next to the Thwaites Ice Shelf can impact the amount of glacial-meltwater flowing beneath it. When that gyre is weaker, more warm water can access the areas beneath the ice shelf, causing it to melt. Meanwhile, another study says that existing conservation efforts are insufficient to protect Antarctic ecosystems, and population declines are...

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Runners brave the cold for Antarctic Ice Marathon

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 17, 2022754 Views

Courageous runners braved snow and freezing temperatures this week for the Antarctic Ice Marathon, won by Ireland's Sean Tobin who organisers said clocked a record time on the continent. A runner participates in the Antarctic Ice Marathon, in Union Glacier, Antarctica, December 14, 2022. Mark Conlon/Antarctic Ice Marathon/Handout via REUTERS The event, the 17th of its kind, took place on Wednesday at Union Glacier, with more than 60 competitors from 20 nations taking part. Organisers describe it as "the southernmost marathon on Earth". Tobin, 28, ran the traditional marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres (26.22 miles) in 2:53.33. "You just sink (into the snow)... One turn I took, I just went completely legless and hit the ground. I was trying to get up and go again," Tobin sai...

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Emperor penguins now a threatened species due to climate change

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

October 26, 2022888 Views

Antarctica’s emperor penguin is at risk of extinction due to rising global temperatures and sea ice loss, the U.S. government said Tuesday as it finalized protections for the animal under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said emperor penguins should be protected under the law since the birds build colonies and raise their young on the Antarctic ice threatened by climate change. The wildlife agency said a thorough review of evidence, including satellite data from 40 years showed the penguins aren’t currently in danger of extinction, but rising temperatures signal that is likely. The agency's review followed a 2011 petition by the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity to list the bird under the Endangered Species Act. FILE PHOTO: Emp...

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Seasonal change in Antarctic ice sheet movement observed for first time

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

October 6, 2022224 Views

Some estimates of Antarctica’s total contribution to sea-level rise may be over- or underestimated, after researchers detected a previously unknown source of ice loss variability. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Austrian engineering company ENVEO, identified distinct, seasonal movements in the flow of land-based ice draining into George VI Ice Shelf – a floating platform of ice roughly the size of Wales – on the Antarctic Peninsula. Riley Glacier, Palmer Land, Antarctica. Photo: Ian Willis Using imagery from the Copernicus/European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellites, the researchers found that the glaciers feeding the ice shelf speed up by approximately 15% during the Antarctic summer. This is the first time that such seasonal cycles have been detected on la...

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Antarctica’s ice shelves could be melting faster than we thought

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

August 16, 2022225 Views

How coastal ocean currents increase Antarctic ice shelf melt A new model developed by Caltech and JPL researchers suggests that Antarctica's ice shelves may be melting at an accelerated rate, which could eventually contribute to more rapid sea level rise. The model accounts for an often-overlooked narrow ocean current along the Antarctic coast and simulates how rapidly flowing freshwater, melted from the ice shelves, can trap dense warm ocean water at the base of the ice, causing it to warm and melt even more. The study was conducted in the laboratory of Andy Thompson, professor of environmental science and engineering, and appears in the journal Science Advances on August 12. A research vessel in Antarctica on June 3, 2017. Photo: Ben Adkison Ice shelves are outcroppings of t...

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150 whales observed feeding together

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

July 12, 20221142 Views

“I’d never seen so many whales in one place before and was absolutely fascinated watching these massive groups feed,” enthuses Prof Bettina Meyer, a biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and at the University of Oldenburg as well as the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, who is a co-author of the current study in Scientific Reports. From March to May 2018, she led an expedition with the research icebreaker Polarstern in the region of the Antarctic Peninsula, during which groups of up to 50 or even 70 fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus quoyi) were observed. Fin whale feeding aggregation at a distance. The horizon is covered by blows of a feeding aggregation numbering approximately 150 fin whales. © BBC T...

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China blocks moves to step up protection of emperor penguins

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

June 5, 2022388 Views

China has blocked efforts to step up protection of emperor penguins that are increasingly threatened by the effects global warming is having on their natural habitat in Antarctica, officials said Friday. Dozens of countries had backed giving the world’s largest penguins special protection status at a 10-day meeting in Berlin of parties to the Antarctic Treaty. The treaty was forged in 1959 to ensure that the continent remains the preserve of science, and free of arms. FILE PHOTO: Crowds of emperor penguins on the ice in Antarctica on Dec. 21, 2005. (Zhang Zongtang/Xinhua via AP) “An overwhelming majority of parties held the opinion that there is sufficient scientific evidence for the species to be put under the special protection,” the German government, which hosted the May 22-J...

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Emperor Penguin at serious risk of extinction due to climate change

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

May 6, 2022472 Views

The emperor penguin, which roams Antarctica's frozen tundra and chilly seas, is at severe risk of extinction in the next 30 to 40 years as a result of climate change, an expert from the Argentine Antarctic Institute (IAA) warned. The emperor, the world's largest penguin and one of only two penguin species endemic to Antarctica, gives birth during the Antarctic winter and requires solid sea ice from April through December to nest fledgling chicks. If the sea freezes later or melts prematurely, the emperor family cannot complete its reproductive cycle. "If the water reaches the newborn penguins, which are not ready to swim and do not have waterproof plumage, they die of the cold and drown," said biologist Marcela Libertelli, who has studied 15,000 penguins across two colonies i...