News: Recently, snow around Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base, located off the coast of Antarctica’s northernmost peninsula, has started to take on a red tinge
Facts:
Cause:
- The red tint in the snow is caused by the microscopic Chlamydomonas nivalis algae which produce the tinted sunscreen to keep themselves warm.
Concern:
- As the snow becomes darker from the tinge from the algae, it absorbs more heat, as a result of which it melts faster.
- Further, these algae change the snow’s albedo (the amount of light or radiation the snow surface is able to reflect back).
