It was preceded by a 14% drop in ice volume between 2010 and 2012, says the study from UCL and University of Leeds which used information recorded by the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 mission between 2010 and 2014.
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“Until CryoSat-2 was launched, it was tricky to measure the volume of Arctic sea ice as the pack drifts and measurements could not be taken across the whole region”.
The shrinking Arctic ice cap is one of the best known impacts of climate change.
Global warming dangers are lurking, but all is not as black and white as is portrayed because a recent study has revealed that volume of sea ice in Arctic increased by a third after the summer of 2013 as the unusually cool air temperatures prevented the ice from melting. The Beeb was reporting on newly published updated research which has confirmed the Arctic ice’s remarkable resurgence over the last couple of years, for all that last year was tied for warmest-ever with 2005 and 2010.
The polar monitoring spacecraft has a very sophisticated radar system on board that means scientists can accurately estimate the volume of the sea ice. The total gain could more than compensate for losses recorded in the three years previous to that.
The Arctic minimum sea ice extent reached 1.94 million square miles on September 17, 2014 – the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979.
Average thickness of Arctic sea ice in spring as measured by CryoSat-2 between 2010 and 2015.
She is concerned that Cryosat-2 data collection is set to stop after just seven years: “We need Arctic-wide thickness measurements of the ice, but Cryosat is only commissioned until 2017”. They argue that while some could see this as a positive, when temperatures are cooler it leads to an increase in sea ice, it could also be a negative when the mercury goes up.
The researchers found the colder temperatures allowed more multi-year ice to persist northwest of Greenland because there were simply fewer days when it could melt.
This means that even though climate and other sea ice models suggest that the volume of sea ice in the region is in long term decline, there is still scope for recovery by a significant amount if the melting season is cut short.
However, the team warns that 2013 was just a minor blip in the seemingly inevitable melting of the ice.
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“It would suggest that sea ice is more resilient perhaps – if you get one year of cooler temperatures, we’ve nearly wound the clock back a few years on this gradual decline that’s been happening over decades, ice scientist Rachel Tilling tells the BBC”.
