Robbie Mallett did not expect that heat in Antarctica would be a particular problem for him. The sea ice researcher has just spent the winter, which runs from March to October in Antarctica, at the British research station Rothera. There he wanted to examine the sea ice off the coast using laser scanners and other instruments. But this year it was so warm and the sea ice was often so thin “that it melted away again in bad weather or was carried away by the wind,” Mallett reported in an email. Such conditions make working on the ice life-threatening. An instrument drifted away with a broken ice floe, but fortunately the researchers were able to recover it with a small boat before it sank. Often Mallett could only go on the ice with skis and a survival suit – if at all. Most of the time, the researcher went to an inland glacier to carry out measurements.
Why the melting of ice in Antarctica poses so many mysteries – Knowledge
