Scientists record Antarctica's first-ever heatwave

Context: Recently, Researchers from the Australian Antarctic Program revealed that they had recorded temperatures as high as 9.2 degrees Celsius at Casey station in the continent east earlier this year, indicating a heatwave event.

Background 

• Heat waves are classified as three consecutive days with both extreme maximum and minimum temperatures. Between January 23 and 26, the station recorded minimum temperatures above zero degrees Celsius and a maximum temperature of 9.2 degrees Celsius.

Key Findings

• Scientists are concerned about the effect that the heat wave could have on Antarctica’s ecology, both positive and negative. 
• Most life exists in small ice-free oases in Antarctica, and largely depends on melting snow and ice for their water supply. 
• Melted ice flooding can provide additional water to these desert ecosystems, leading to increased growth and reproduction of mosses, lichens, microbes and invertebrates. 
• However excessive flooding can dislodge plants and alter the composition of communities of invertebrates and microbial mats. 
• It is believed that the unusual temperatures were linked to meteorological patterns which occurred in the Southern Hemisphere during the spring and summer of 2019. 
• These patterns were influenced in part by the early break-up of the ozone hole in late 2019, due to rapid warming in the stratosphere. 
• Global cooperative efforts being undertaken to repair and eventually close the hole in the ozone layer would help reduce regional shifts in the climate system.

About Antarctica

• Situation: Antartica, centred on the South Pole, is situated 960 km from South America, 2,700 km from Australia and 4,000 km from South Africa. It is surrounded by Southern or Antarctic Ocea, formed the southern waters of Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean.
• Shape: Except for the deep indentations of the Ross and Weddell Seas and the projecting peninsula, the continent is roughly circular in shape.
• Size: Fifth largest continent.
• Climate: World’s coldest continent and remains covered with very thick layer of ice, therefore, known as ‘white continent’. Precipitation, in the form of snow (equal to 5 cm of rain) making Antarctica, one of the earth’s great desert.
• The Land: Antarctic Continent is the highest of all the continents, averaging 6000 feet in elevation. Ice sheet covers 95% of Antarctica, and exposed areas are rugges and mountainous. The principal mountain chain is Trans Antarctic which divides the continent in almost two equal parts. Ellsworth Mountain, fringing the coast, contains Antarctica’s highest peak, the Vinson Massif (5,140m). Mt. Erebus, the only active volcano, is located on the Ross Island.