PolarScientist

Erika: Yea, both the Arctic and Antarctic have areas where temperatures are way above normal right now. A great place to see the current conditions is Climate Reanalyzer out of UMaine: https://climatereanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#t2anom

It's tough to say what the impacts will be, as they'll depend on how long-lived these conditions are. But, events like this are becoming more frequent and we're definitely seeing the effects of them, probably most substantially in the Arctic. Warmer temperatures in the winter mean the sea ice will grow more slowly, or not at all, and the sea ice has been *astoundingly* diminished in the last couple decades.

Erika: No wildlife at the south pole, but at McMurdo I saw skua (kind of like seagulls) and seals. Saw polar bear tracks in Svalbard but luckily no actual bears. Most of the isolation I've felt has been covid-related, working from home! In the field its pretty rare to be alone, and at South Pole there's a pretty good internet connection for a few hours a day! Politics can absolutely affect research funding, though I've been lucky to not have personally been affected. I do know a lot of people who's fieldwork has been cancelled or delayed because of government shutdowns though.

Erika: Finishing a PhD dissertation...

In the Antarctic, this is particularly interesting (and damaging) because glaciologists usually think of rising ocean temperatures as being a larger problem than rising air temperatures. A large percentage of Antarctic ice mass loss is happens where the ice touches the ocean through melting and calving (breaking off of icebergs), so rising ocean temperatures are a big concern. With air temperature, it is so cold over most of the continent that if it goes from say -20C to -18C, that doesn't change melt. However, heatwaves like the one that was just observed might change the importance of air temperature in predicting mass loss.

Lavanya: Several scientists at NASA and universities have been studying sea-ice using different techniques. According to a recent study, there is evidence that there is going to be extended loss of sea-ice in the Arctic in the coming decades. You can read more about this study here at https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/