There are signs Antarctica just experienced its highest melt extent ever recorded in the satellite era. The big meltdown hit on Christmas Eve and is bad news for a continent already dealing with a lot. With summer is just getting started there, this is a serious case of Summertime Sadness.
Antarctic is the largest stash of ice on the planet. Warm oceans have posed the biggest threat to that ice by undercutting the ice shelves that float out into the sea, particularly the tongues of ice around West Antarctica. But surface melt could become a bigger concern, and the Christmas Eve meltdown is indicative of the concerns. Preliminary findings from modeling done at the University of Liège in Belgium show that the percentage of surface melt on the continent spiked on December 24…
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Exposing the Big Game 