Climate change winning? Scientists confirm receding Antarctic sea ice has hit record low!

New Delhi: With 2016 being declared as the hottest year on record, the dangers of global warming on the world loom larger than ever.

The massive Antarctic region serves as a measuring unit when it comes to climate change. Scientists are constantly monitoring the ice shelves for any changes – increase or decrease – in the percentage of ice.

Till a few months ago, scientists were baffled with the way the Antarctic region was left unruffled by the impact of climate change, while the Arctic's condition in comparison was deteriorating at a fast pace.

Soon after scientists could finally put a finger on the reason, they also noted that the Antarctic was definitely losing ice, albeit gradually.

Now, scientists have revealed that the Antarctic sea ice extent has hit its lowest level since records began nearly four decades ago.

According to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) sea ice in the frozen continent covered just 2.26 million square kilometres on Tuesday, dipping below the earlier 1997 record low.

The sea ice is likely to decrease further as it usually melts to its smallest for the year at the end of February in the summer of southern hemisphere, researchers said.

Sea ice at both poles has been expected to decline as the Earth heats up due to man-made global warming. However, the conditions in the Antarctic are much more variable, the state-run news agency 'Xinhua' reported.

The average extent of sea ice around the South Pole has tended to expand in many recent years and hit a record high of around 20.16 million square km in September 2014.

The new data still need to be confirmed with a few days of measurements, said Mark Serreze, director of the NSIDC.

(With PTI inputs)