Science, Discovery, Tech and Environment · 13 October 2026
Antarctic sea ice peaked at 17.59 million sq km on September 14, marking its third-lowest winter maximum on record
Exam-focused facts from the 13 October 2026 current affairs briefing.
Key facts
- Antarctic sea ice likely reached its annual maximum extent on September 14, covering an estimated 17.59 million square kilometres, the third-lowest winter maximum in satellite records, about a million square kilometres (nearly 400,000 square miles) below the long-term average, according to NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC).
- With this peak confirmed, the four lowest winter sea ice maximum years on record have all occurred in the past four years; NSIDC's Dr Walt Meier noted the centre delayed declaring the maximum due to high potential variability at this stage of the ice cycle.
- Antarctic sea ice typically peaks in September at the end of the Southern Hemisphere winter and retreats to a minimum in February; unlike the land-locked Arctic ocean basin, Antarctica is a continent surrounded by ocean, allowing greater winter expansion but exposing ice to warmer latitudes and more summer melting.
- Dr Ariaan Purich, a Southern Ocean expert at Monash University in Melbourne, said four consecutive record-low winter maxima indicate the system has changed due to climate warming, warning that low sea ice is "not a future problem" but "a now problem".
- From 1979 to 2014 Antarctic sea ice grew about 1 per cent per decade, with record winter highs from 2012 to 2014, but declines began after 2015 and 2016, and both the record-low minimum and maximum occurred in 2023; scientists will keep monitoring to determine whether the decline is long-term or a statistical fluctuation.
- Sea ice extent is measured by satellites with passive microwave sensors that detect microwave energy emitted by Earth, which passes through clouds regardless of weather; the record began in late 1978 with NASA's Nimbus-7, continued with Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites from 1987 and NASA's Aqua from 2002 to 2011, and since 2025 scientists have used observations from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's GCOM-W satellite.