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Sea ice extent continues to decline, and is now at 4.24 million square kilometers (1.63 million square miles), falling yet further below the previous record absolute minimum of 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles) that occurred on September 20–21, 2005.

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The image below shows the current (Sept 10, 2007) extent of the Arctic Ice Cap. The magenta line indicates the normal extent of the icecap at it's summer minimum for the last 30 years. As you can see the current icecap area is far below the normal area. And it's still shrinking!



The graph shows the current area of the Arctic icecap compared to previous years. The 2007 icecap is reduced by 40% from it's normal area!




View the historical data using Google Earth
Check it out in Google Earth. The attached .kml file includes an time based animation of the icecap's extent. Use the time slider to see the normal Arctic summers from 1978 to 2006. This animation was obtained from the NSIDC Google Earth page. Check it out to see this and much other data about the state of the c cryosphere .

Real time View of the Arctic
You can also see the extent of the Arctic ice cap in real time directly in Google Earth. The attached overlay is being updated everyday.



Opening of the Northwest Passage
The retreat of the icecap has opened up the fabled Northwest Passage for the first time!

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On August 21, 2007 the Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need of an icebreaker. According to Nalan Koc of the Norwegian Polar Institute this is the first time since they began keeping records in 1972.

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(high res)

Northwest Passage opens for business
This has fueled speculation this the shift from global warming will open up the Arctic for business . From the Canadian National Post

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Just a week after Canada and the U.S. agreed to disagree over the ownership of the Northwest Passage, this summer's record melt of Arctic sea ice has unlocked the fabled polar shipping route more completely than ever before, the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center has announced.

"It's open," Mark Serreze, a senior scientist with research institute based in Boulder, Colo., said in an interview Tuesday. "It's unprecedented. Theoretically you could take a ship from Tokyo through the Northwest Passage to Boston. Not an easy sail, not a Sunday cruise, but it has started to happen."

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"The namesake glaciers for Glacier National Park are disappearing rapidly," he said. "Especially in the last several decades. These glaciers that numbered 150 when the park was first formed are now less than 27." More than 7,000 years ago, glaciers 900 to 1,500 meters thick covered this landscape. The constant ice flow carved out these jagged peaks and deep valleys. Now, Dan Fagre says the remaining glaciers are melting at an alarming rate. He blames global warming. "One glacier by itself can not invoke climate change. But, when you have all the glaciers in almost all of the mountain ranges of the entire globe responding the same way, then you know you have global phenomena. And in this case, the glaciers are responding to warming."

Fagre says if the current melting trend continues all of the glaciers will be gone within 20 years.

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Sobering to realize that the very weather is not controlled solely by the whims of the gods, but also by the accidents of man.

Edited by blt (10/01/07 09:00 PM)

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