| blt |
| (Cartographer) |
| 06/15/08 12:30 PM |
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Re: Arctic Sea Ice Update June-2008
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This season, the Arctic sea ice appears to be headed to another record low. The NSIDC continues to monitor the sea ice and has an excellent summary web page on the current state of the Arctic and scientific commentary on the current retreat. Most interesting is the real time chart showing the extent of the sea ice compared to 2007's record low
. As you can see we are on track for another record low. Last year the Arctic sea ice broke up at a record rate during the last few weeks of June and July. This year, the sea ice is exceptionally new and thin and if the same percentage of one year old ice melts as previous years, we can expect another historical low.
Quote:(From the May NSIDC summary )
This bar plot shows estimates of sea ice extent at the 2008 September minimum based on known ice survival rates. The blue dotted line indicates the record-breaking minimum extent of 2007; the red dotted line shows the mean estimate based on all years between 1983 and 2007.