See the impacts of Antarctica's heat wave in stunning before-and-after photos
On Feb. 6, the ongoing impacts of climate change delivered a record-setting 65-degree day in the icy continent of Antarctica. Now you can see what that warming actually looks like.
The first image below is from Feb. 4, just a couple days before the arrival of the warm temperatures that lingered in the region through Feb. 13. The second photo shows us what that same region looks like after a week of higher-than-average temperatures.
In case it's not clear, a lot of that ice and snow started to recede or disappear entirely by the time the heat wave ended.
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The record temperature of 18.3 degrees Celsus (or roughly 64 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded on the Antarctic Peninsula, found at the northern end of the continent. The images above capture that same area, and you should pay particular attention to Eagle Island, the landmass near the botton of each image.
You can very clearly see how the snow accumulation has receded in the later photo, with more areas of exposed ground and rock. The light blue patch visible at the center of the island in the later photo is also notable as an example of how the snow is melting.
Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist at Nichols College, identified the blue patch as a "melt pond," or a pool of water that formed on top of the ice as snow melted, in a report from NASA's Earth Observatory. “I haven’t seen melt ponds develop this quickly in Antarctica. You see these kinds of melt events in Alaska and Greenland, but not usually in Antarctica," Pelto said.
While the above images offer a dramatic example of the increasingly-hard-to-ignore effects of climate change, it's even more alarming that February's stretch of warmer temperatures in the Antarctic region was the third of the current season, following similar events in Nov. 2019 and Jan. 2020.
The images above were captured by the Operational Land Imager, a very high-tech camera (it's so much more than that) aboard the U.S.-launched Earth observation satellite, Landsat 8.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
