A “supercoolometer”, a device that sounds like it should be used to measure hipsters, has found the coldest seawater on Earth, under Antarctic sea ice.
NIWA oceanographer Dr Craig Stevens and his team are researching why, in a warming world, sea ice is growing in the Antarctic even though it is receding in the Arctic. Sea ice growth is a vital part of the climate system that influences many aspects of life on the planet. The question is, are the giant ice shelves around Antarctica responsible for this paradox?
This year the team deployed a highly sensitive instrument called a supercoolometer as well as their usual array of ocean turbulence sensors. It was developed at NIWA by Matt Walkington to look at an often-ignored but possibly key part of the Earth’s climate system – seawater colder than freezing point.
