A Calgary researcher, who has spent the last eight months in Antarctica studying sea ice, says he has seen first-hand how big an effect climate change has had in the region.The research is part of a British-based project called DEFIANT — Drivers and Effects of Fluctuations in sea Ice in the ANTarctic — which aims to deploy a state-of-the-art ground-based radar system that mimics the satellites in space.
Nandan said the issue is that the area gets so much snow, sometimes up to a metre, that it’s difficult to get accurate satellite readings of snow and sea ice thickness. “Arctic sea ice has declined substantially — about 70 per cent over the past 30 to 40 years. When compared to that, the Antarctic has been stable, but over the past few years, since about 2016, we have seen a dramatic decline in sea ice in many regions across the Antarctic,” Nandan said.
He said his research, which is also supported by the University of Manitoba, is important considering what can happen with declining sea ice.