The shifting, grinding ice cap over the Arctic Ocean has shrunk to the smallest extent ever seen by satellites — more than a month before the frozen sea normally stops disintegrating and starts to grow again, according to an analysis by the Polar Research Group at the University of Illinois.
And the summer isn’t over yet.
In a dispatch posted online Aug. 9, the Cryosphere Today reported that “the Northern Hemisphere sea ice area broke the record for the lowest recorded ice area in recorded history.
“There is still a month or more of melt likely this year,” the scientists added. “It is therefore almost certain that the previous 2005 record will be annihilated by the final 2007 annual minima closer to the end of this summer.”
The ice watchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center — who share data with the UI team — ramped up their annual Arctic cap web site on Aug. 10. The NSIDC take on the situation was equally grim:
At this point in the 2007 melt season, this much is already clear: the Arctic is experiencing an unprecedented sixth consecutive year with much less sea ice than normal, and it looks like this year’s sea ice melt season may herald a new and steeper rate of decline.