For second year in a row, melt may open Northwest Passage

[babylonsister]

For second year in a row, melt may open Northwest Passage

Santa's home safe, though, for now

By GEORGE BRYSON
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Published: August 3rd, 2008 02:16 AM
Last Modified: August 3rd, 2008 02:22 AM



Alaska's warm weather this summer has all "gone north." Way north. Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center say strong, southerly winds from the North Slope have devoured a huge swath of Arctic ice larger than the state of Texas in the heart of the Beaufort Sea.

Combining that loss with the overall decline in sea ice in recent years should leave this year's end-of-summer Arctic ice pack close to its lowest measurement on record. It may also open up the ice-encrusted Northwest Passage for the second year in a row -- and only the second time in recorded history.

The Beaufort's broad expanse of open water, which now extends more than a third of the way from Alaska to the North Pole, far surpasses the ice-free zone that prevailed there last summer when Arctic ice overall plummeted to a record low.

Daily satellite images relayed to the NSIDC headquarters in Boulder, Colo., also indicate the Northwest Passage is ice-free as far east of Alaska as Amundsen Gulf, about 600 miles east of the Alaska-Canada border.


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