Record low Antarctic sea ice coverage indicates a new sea ice state

In February 2023, Antarctic sea ice set a record minimum; there have now been three record-breaking low sea ice summers in seven years. Following the summer minimum, circumpolar Antarctic sea ice coverage remained exceptionally low during the autumn and winter advance, leading to the largest negative areal extent anomalies observed over the satellite era. Here, we show the confluence of Southern Ocean subsurface warming and record minima and suggest that ocean warming has played a role in pushing Antarctic sea ice into a new low-extent state. In addition, this new state exhibits different seasonal persistence characteristics, suggesting that the underlying processes controlling Antarctic sea ice coverage may have altered. Record-low sea ice coverage around Antarctica in 2022 and 2023 co-occurred with substantial subsurface ocean warming, which could be indicative of a change in the mechanisms that govern Antarctic sea ice, suggests an analysis of sea ice extent and ocean temperatures since 1979.