SMH - With +/- 3 Weeks To Go, Arctic Sea Ice Extent Already 77,000 Sq Km Under 2007's Record Low
Last edited Sun Aug 26, 2012, 08:36 PM - Edit history (1)
Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level ever recorded, according to satellite data from the past week that shows a massive melt is still underway.
The ice cap had contracted to just over four million square kilometres, about 77,000 square kilometres smaller than the previous record low in 2007, data from the International Arctic Research Centre and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency indicates. With two to three weeks of warm temperatures yet to come, the area covered by ice may fall yet further.
It means that, unless the pole grows dramatically cooler, the Arctic ice cap is very likely to vanish entirely during summer by the middle of this century.
''This is significant, because the trend is strongly down and it is consistent with the polar amplification effect,'' said the executive director of the Australian National University's Climate Change Institute, Professor Will Steffen. ''Polar amplification is where the Arctic is experiencing about double the temperature rise of the global average, because as the ice melts it uncovers darker water beneath, which traps more heat - it creates feedback. We can expect to see an ice-free Arctic at about the middle of this century.''
EDIT
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/satellites-show-meltdown-of-arctic-ice-cap-underway-20120826-24uoe.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
...and it is from Cryosphere Today.
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It will be "interesting" to see what the August volume numbers from PIOMAS look like in another week or so.
If anyone needed evidence that we're over the cliff and in mid-air, I think this year in the Arctic is it.
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