Researchers that are making efforts to clarify the data being collected on Antarctic sea ice by satellites using ground-based instruments are reporting that the extent of ice surrounding our southernmost continent has shrunk to a record low, nearly one million square kilometers (386,000 square miles) less than when record keepingread more

Despite a cool, cloudy summer, the ice levels in the Arctic have shrunk enough to tie with the second-lowest Arctic sea ice minimum, recorded in 2007. "Historically such weather conditions slow down the summer ice loss, but we still got down to essentially a tie for second lowest on the satellite record," reports US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) director Mark Serreze.
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A truly shocking and astonishing show on extremely strange events in the Antarctic. A naval officer tells us what he remembers, including seeing a huge opening in the ice in a no-fly area they were crossing with a medical emergency on board. Then he ferried a group of scientists who had disappeared for two weeks, and has specifically been warned not to refer again to this subject. As he put it, "they looked scared." When they returned to McMurdo, their gear was isolated and they were flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand in a special plane.
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