China News Service, February 26. According to the "Central News Agency" report, Antarctica was hit by a 9-day heat wave earlier this month, and about 20% of the snow on Eagle Island, located at the northeastern tip of Antarctica, has melted. Experts say this is a common sign of an increasing climate crisis.
CNN reports that satellite photos show the changes in Eagle Island, which is at the northeast end of Antarctica, during the heat wave this month. In just 9 days, most of the land originally covered by snow was exposed, and the island also formed pools of molten water.
Heavy snow melted at Eagle Island, Antarctica. Source: NASA.
The hottest day in the history of Antarctica at the beginning of the month, when the temperature reached 18.28 degrees Celsius. NASA said the same temperature was also measured in Los Angeles in the northern hemisphere that day.
NASA Earth Observatory said that in just a week or so, the snow on Eagle Island melted about 10 cm, accounting for about 20% of the island's total seasonal snow.
"I've never seen Antarctica melt snow and form pools so fast. You can see this phenomenon in Alaska and Greenland," said Pelto, a geographer at Nichols College in Massachusetts. But Antarctica is rare. "
Climatologist Fettweis maps the amount of ice melting into the sea from the Antarctic Peninsula, and points out that heat waves are the biggest cause of sea level rise this summer.
Pelto said the heat wave was the product of continued high temperatures. Before the 21st century, this kind of thing almost never happened in Antarctica. As global warming intensifies, this type of climate change will become more common.