A shocking latest satellite image shows an unlimited mass of melting sea ice elegantly swirling around a Russian peninsula within the Arctic.
Although beautiful, the scene is a somber reminder of the ever-increasing effects of climate change.
NASA’s Aqua satellite snapped the dazzling ice display on May 28 twirling across the Sea of Okhotsk for lots of of miles, just off the coast of Russia’s snow-covered P’yagina Peninsula. The image was released on June 12 by NASA’s Earth Observatory.
The ethereal white swirls, which appear yearly, are made up of melting sea ice being dragged around by ocean currents. The P’yagina Peninsula is a hotspot for some of these swirls because cold air and fresh water deposited into the ocean by rivers help create particularly thick sea ice, a few of which may still be seen hugging the peninsula’s north coastline within the image.
When the ocean ice melts in spring and summer, the fracturing ice chunks are pushed south by the wind into vortex-like ocean currents created by a bunch of small islands positioned to the south of the landmass’ principal point, in response to the Earth Observatory.
Ice swirls like this could are available in a variety of styles and sizes. In December 2022, an extreme cold snap within the U.K. created a number of mini ice swirls, or “ice pancakes,” on rivers in Scotland that were formed by tiny spiraling currents referred to as eddies.
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The larger Russian swirls can sometimes persist for months and are occasionally pushed as far south as Japan. In 2018, several large swirls, each measuring greater than 31 miles (50 kilometers) across, were spotted off the coast of Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost island, Japanese news site The Mainichi reported on the time.
The swirls are also appearing earlier yearly because there may be less sea ice developing within the Arctic over winter and what sea ice there may be breaks up earlier because of the results of human-caused climate change.
On March 6, the Arctic reached its annual maximum sea ice extent — the purpose at which the most important surface area of the ocean is roofed by ice. This yr’s maximum extent was the sixth lowest on record, meaning there was loads less sea ice than normal, in response to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Since then, the ocean ice within the Sea of Okhotsk has melted away at a faster rate than the remainder of the Arctic for unknown reasons, in response to the NSIDC.
A study published Feb. 14 within the journal Atmosphere-Ocean revealed that the ocean ice extent within the Sea of Okhotsk decreased by about 9% per decade between 1979 and 2010.
Sea ice can also be disappearing in Antarctica. In February, the world’s most southerly continent experienced a record-low minimum sea ice extent, where sea ice coverage reached its lowest point, for the second yr in a row.