Antarctica is greening faster than scientists predicted. According to researchers, analyses of satellite images show that the green areas in Antarctica are ten times greater than they were 40 years ago.

The findings, published Friday in Nature Geoscience, based on a meticulous analysis of Landsat images from 1986 to 2021, show that the greening trend is distinct from natural variability and that it has accelerated by 30 percent since 2016, fast enough to cover nearly 75 football fields per year.

The Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing rapid plant growth, with vegetation increasing over tenfold in recent decades due to accelerating climate change. This greening, primarily mosses, highlights the profound impact of global warming on one of the planet’s most fragile ecosystems.

The Antarctic is rapidly greening due to climate change global warming, according to a new study Friday from the British Antarctic Survey and the universities of Exeter and Hertfordshire.

Greening of Antarctica alters local ecosystems and signals broader climate change effects worldwide. Researchers warn of ecological shifts.

Antarctica is experiencing a "dramatic" increase in greenery, with a more than 30% acceleration in this trend over recent years

Satellite imagery shows that vegetation on the peninsula grew from less than one square kilometres in 1986 to almost 12sqkm by 2021

But since then, the Antarctic Peninsula has warmed rapidly, and a new study shows that mosses, along with some lichen, liverworts and associated algae, have colonized more than 4.6 square miles, an area nearly four times the size of New York’s Central Park.

Researchers used satellite data to assess how much the Antarctic Peninsula has been “greening” in response to climate change.

Regions of Antarctica are being rapidly “greened” by growing vegetation as our planet warms, suggests a new study. In the last 40 years, the area of the northern Antarctic Peninsula covered by greenery – mostly mosses – has increased by more than 1000%.