5:00 am today

Antarctica's heartbeat

From Our Changing World, 5:00 am today

Step out on the sea ice just outside New Zealand’s Scott Base with researchers studying the physics of its annual cycle. Each year a massive patch of ocean around Antarctica freezes and then melts again come summer - Antarctica’s heartbeat. In winter, the ice effectively more than doubles the size of this already massive continent, and it plays a huge role in controlling our planet’s climate.