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Antarctic sea ice cover at record low: EU monitor

On February 16, the ocean surface covered by ice around the frozen continent shrank to 2.09 million square kilometers (nearly 800,000 square miles), the lowest level since satellite records began, according to figures provided to AFP by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S).

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About 90 percent of the Sun's energy that hits white sea ice is reflected back into space. But when sunlight hits dark, unfrozen ocean water, nearly the same amount of that energy is absorbed instead, contributing directly to global warming.