While the algal blooms causing green snow certainly make for a spectacular sight, they are also yet another indication of just how quickly temperatures in Antarctica are rising.
Antarctica conjures images of an unbroken white wilderness but blooms of algae are giving parts of the frozen continent an increasingly green tinge.
Warming temperatures due to climate change are helping the formation and spread of “green snow” and it is becoming so prolific in places that it is even visible from space, according to new research published on Wednesday.
While the presence of algae in Antarctica was noted by long-ago expeditions, such as the one undertaken by British explorer Ernest Shackleton, its full extent was unknown.
Now, using data collected over two years by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel 2 satellite, together with on-the-ground observations, a research team from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have created the first map of the algae blooms on the Antarctic Peninsula coast.
What’s more, it isn’t just the continent that’s heating up, but the oceans around it as well. Parts of the Southern Ocean have warmed by 3 degrees Celsius, increasing the rate of ice loss, and exposing more ice shelves to warmer waters, particularly in East Antarctica.
