Alarm bells are ringing for Kiwi scientists over the dramatic decline in Antarctic sea ice, which hit a record low this winter with no sign of slowing down.
Scientists will gather in Wellington on Tuesday for an emergency summit to discuss and address the rapidly evolving situation, as well as highlight the implications on Antartica and New Zealand, before researchers head into the field this season.
NIWA marine physicist Dr Natalie Robinson says that in the 44 years of monitoring the ocean, they've never seen anything like this.
"We saw last year 2022 was a low already, but this year it has really fallen off the cliff.
"At the moment we are missing an area of sea ice, this area of frozen ocean, that's more than seven times the area of New Zealand.
"So that's ice that we expected to form but hasn't formed."
Currently 14 percent of the sea ice, which is about 50 times the size of New Zealand when it all freezes each winter, is missing, and a couple months ago it was hitting the 20 percent threshold.
Despite the warming of the ocean, Robinson says the "Antarctic sea ice had been hanging on", but now it's starting to melt - and quickly.
"To see it drop dramatically like it has this season has been a real alarming call."
"We ended the last summer season with a record low and since then it hasn't grown to its normal extent"
Just across the Tasman Sea in Australia, scientists have linked the drop in sea ice to changes in heat content of the Southern Ocean - rising temperatures that have now reached the point where the sea ice is responding.
If it keeps continuing, Dr Robinson believes it will be "difficult" to see the Antarctic Sea ice recover in the next few years, with the consequences potentially far reaching for the Earth's climate.
Just across the Tasman Sea in Australia, scientists have linked the drop in sea ice to changes in heat content of the Southern Ocean - rising temperatures that have now reached the point where the sea ice is responding.
