Antarctica – आवारा मुसाफिर

Vegetation is taking over snow in Antarctica

October 8, 2024139 Views

Lush landscape is spreading at an alarming rate in a place where temperatures are soaring A fast-warming region of Antarctica is getting greener with shocking speed. Satellite imagery of the region reveals that the area covered by plants increased by almost 14 times over 35 years — a trend that will spur rapid change of Antarctic ecosystems. “It's the beginning of dramatic transformation,” says Olly Bartlett, a remote-sensing specialist at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK, and an author of the study, published recently in Nature Geoscience, that reports these results. From white to green Bartlett and his colleagues analysed images taken between 1986 and 2021 of the Antarctic Peninsula — a part of the continent that juts north towards the tip of South America. Th...

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Scientists in Chile question if Antarctica has hit a point of no return

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

August 30, 2024217 Views

Nearly 1,500 academics, researchers and scientists specializing in Antarctica gathered in southern Chile for the 11th Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research conference this week to share the most cutting-edge research from the vast white continent. Nearly every aspect of science, from geology to biology and glaciology to arts, was covered but a major undercurrent ran through the conference. Antarctica is changing, faster than expected. Extreme weather events in the ice-covered continent were no longer hypothetical presentations, but first-hand accounts from researchers about heavy rainfall, intense heat waves and sudden Foehn (strong dry winds) events at research stations that led to mass melting, giant glacier break-offs and dangerous weather conditions with global implications...

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Viking expedition discovers new penguin colony in Antarctica

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

March 8, 2024565 Views

New chinstrap penguin colony recorded following survey at Astrolabe Island by Viking and Oceanites Viking has announced that its expedition team supported the discovery of a new colony of chinstrap penguins not previously known to science on Diaz Rock, near Astrolabe Island, in Antarctica. The finding took place in January 2024 when Viking's expedition vessel, the Viking Octantis, visited Astrolabe Island, a three-mile-long island, located in the Bransfield Strait of the Trinity Peninsula in Antarctica. Astrolabe Island is home to a colony of chinstrap penguins that had not been surveyed since 1987. Astrolabe Island in Antarctica with Diaz Rock in the distance. Photo credit Hayley Charleton-Howard. During the visit, Viking's scientific partner, Oceanites, the leading field re...

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Once unknown emperor penguin colonies have been spotted in Antarctica

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

January 26, 2024455 Views

Previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins have been spotted in new satellite imagery. Emperor penguins, considered “near threatened” with extinction, are the world’s largest penguins. They raise their chicks in Antarctic winter on patches of frozen sea ice. But if the ice breaks up before the chicks have fledged, most will die. At least some emperor penguins are moving their colonies as melting ice from climate change threatens breeding grounds, according to research released on Wednesday. One penguin colony near Halley Bay appears to have moved around 30 kilometers (19 miles) to the east, said Peter Fretwell, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey. He said unstable conditions beginning in 2016 had made the old location perilous. “Emperor penguins have taken it...

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Going beyond in Antarctica

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

December 17, 2023533 Views

Quark Expeditions takes explorers to Snow Hill island colony of Emperor penguins Quark Expeditions, the global leader in polar adventures, extended its longstanding record of achievement in Antarctica by successfully landing 208 explorers on two voyages for an experience that few on the planet will ever have: walking on sea ice to visit the remote Snow Hill Island colony of Emperor penguins. Quark Expeditions' technologically-advanced expedition ship, Ultramarine, and its team delivered these successful Snow Hill voyages in November and December, while also hosting a special onboard ceremony at the edge of Antarctica's Weddell Sea: the official announcement of Dr Sian Proctor as Ultramarine's godmother. Photo Credit: Michelle Sole Joined by the company's legendary Expedition L...

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World’s largest iceberg breaks free, heads toward Southern Ocean

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November 26, 2023728 Views

The world's largest iceberg is on the move for the first time in more than three decades, scientists said on Friday. At almost 4,000 square km (1,500 square miles), the Antarctic iceberg called A23a is roughly three times the size of New York City. Since calving off West Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986, the iceberg — which once hosted a Soviet research station — has largely been stranded after its base became stuck on the floor of the Weddell Sea. Not anymore. Recent satellite images reveal that the berg, weighing nearly a trillion metric tonnes, is now drifting quickly past the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, aided by strong winds and currents. A satellite imagery of the world's largest iceberg, named A23a, seen in Antarctica, November 15, 2023. Courtes...

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A key part of Antarctica is doomed to slow collapse

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October 26, 2023572 Views

Study says, nothing can be done even with carbon emissions cuts No matter how much the world cuts back on carbon emissions, a key and sizable chunk of Antarctica is essentially doomed to an “unavoidable” melt, a new study found. Though the full melt will take hundreds of years, slowly adding nearly 6 feet (1.8 meters) to sea levels, it will be enough to reshape where and how people live in the future, the study’s lead author said. Researchers used computer simulations to calculate future melting of protective ice shelves jutting over Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea in western Antarctica. The study in Monday’s journal Nature Climate Change found even if future warming was limited to just a few tenths of a degree more – an international goal that many scientists say is unlikely to be met...

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Loss of Antarctic ice killed thousands of emperor penguin

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

August 25, 2023891 Views

The loss of ice in one region of Antarctica last year likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies, researchers reported Thursday. Emperor penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks on the ice that forms around the continent each Antarctic winter and melts in the summer months. Researchers used satellite imagery to look at breeding colonies in a region near Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea. The images showed no ice was left there in December during the Southern Hemisphere’s summer, as had occurred in 2021. FILE PHOTO: Penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica on Jan.27, 2015. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Researchers said it is likely that no chicks survived in four of the five breeding colonies they examined. Pengui...

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Even frozen Antarctica is being walloped by climate extremes

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

August 8, 2023821 Views

Even in Antarctica — one of the most remote and desolate places on Earth — scientists say they are finding shattered temperature records and an increase in the size and number of wacky weather events. The southernmost continent is not isolated from the extreme weather associated with human-caused climate change, according to a new paper in Frontiers in Environmental Science that tries to make a coherent picture of a place that has been a climate change oddball. Its western end and especially its peninsula have seen dramatic ice sheet melt that threatens massive sea level rises over the next few centuries, while the eastern side has at times gained ice. One western glacier is melting so fast that scientists have nicknamed it the Doomsday Glacier and there’s an international effort tryin...

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Warm water melts weak spots on Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’

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February 16, 2023832 Views

Scientists studying Antarctica's vast Thwaites Glacier - nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier - say warm water is seeping into its weak spots, worsening melting caused by rising temperatures, two papers published in Nature journal showed on Wednesday. Thwaites, which is roughly the size of Florida, represents more than half a meter (1.6 feet) of global sea level rise potential, and could destabilize neighboring glaciers that have the potential to cause a further three-meter (9.8-foot) rise. An Icefin is seen in the water as scientists work in the field at the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica in this undated handout picture obtained by Reuters on February 14, 2023. Becka Bower/Cornell University/Handout via REUTERS As part of the International Thwaites Glacier collaboration - the biggest ...