Antarctic Sea Ice

The sea ice that forms around Antarctica in winter effectively doubles the size of the continent, and its extent has increased over recent years.

NIWA physical oceanographer Dr Mike Williams talks about Antarctic sea ice: what it is, why it's important, and the difficulty in measuring its extent. Climate modeller Dr Sam Dean explains a new method for measuring long-term trends in sea ice using a combination of modern satellite images and past records from subantarctic met stations.