Kiwi’s research team is the first to use airplanes to measure Antarctica’s sea ice

A New Zealand research team has achieved an important milestone: being the first in the world to measure the thickness of Antarctic sea ice from the air.

The team, led by glaciologist Wolfgang Rack of the University of Canterbury, just published their findings, after using a modified plan towing special electromagnetic equipment to measure a 500-mile stretch of ice in the Ross Sea.

Rack said the Antarctic sea ice would generally be about a meter thick, but in the region studied by the team, wind events had increased the thickness considerably.

“On average, the ice was two meters thick, but at its thickest, it was 16 meters thick.”

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He said they didn’t know how thick the ice was when starting out and that it was important to have baseline data.

“If we want to know if the ice is thinning, we have to measure its initial thickness first.”

Sea ice was important because it reflected sunlight, insulated the warm ocean from the cold Antarctic atmosphere, and its formation controlled global ocean circulation, Rack said.

“How Antarctica’s sea ice responds to a warming planet is a key question in climate science, and with limited data sets, this research will help put future change in context.”

Antarctica New Zealand Executive Director Sarah Williamson said this type of study was extremely important.

“Sea ice is a key part of the Antarctic environment, but there is still so much we don’t know about how and where it forms.

“The more we learn about sea ice, the better we understand the interactions between climate, ocean circulation, and ecosystems in Antarctica.”

The team is planning another trip to Antarctica next November, to make the same measurements in a larger region.