The National Snow and Ice Data Center said ice spanned the 4th lowest extent in the satellite era, which dates back to 1978.
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Arctic sea ice has been in decline since at least the 1970s due to climate change, and recent research reveals the thinning is accelerating. But it is this normal that has always been up for debate because of the small sample size.
Summer Arctic sea ice shrank to its fourth lowest level on record this month, dispelling faint hopes of a recovery, federal scientists said. Measured this summer as being the “fourth” lowest for the Arctic Ice Extent, the readings lend little leverage to climate experts for any optimistic projections.
The 10 lowest extents on record have all occurred in the last 11 years according to NASA.
You can see how this year compares to the last few years near the North Pole with the graph below… the light blue line indicates 2015.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced earlier this week that the annual meltdown is likely over and that the summer (yet again) did a number on the region. The last five years average 1.72 million square miles, a decrease of 38 percent and more than a million square miles.
Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University, with the help of American and Dutch scientists, used advanced statistical models to predict how sea ice losses effect temperature and precipitation patterns – two significant factors in determining the levels of biological activity in the arctic tundra. This year’s minimum sea ice extent of 1.8 million square kilometers (699,000 square miles) is lower than the 1981-2010 average. “Now, it’s like the invaders have tunneled in from underneath and the ice pack melts from within”. But as the ice thins, that could change, Goddard climate modeler Richard Cullather said in the statement.
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The sea ice cap was once a solid sheet of ice that grew and shrank with the seasons, but it’s become increasingly fragmented into smaller ice floes that are more exposed to the warmer water, which only serves to accelerate melting even further. “Instead of using data like the sea ice minimum as a clear warning sign to take bold action, our leaders are allowing Shell to drill for oil in the melting Arctic ice”. “Arctic sea ice is one of several aspects of climate change that his happening even faster than originally predicted”.
