Arctic Sea Ice Melt Parallels 2007 Record Low Level

Boulder, CO, United States (AHN) – Latest data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, shows that Arctic sea ice is set to recede to a record low this year. Based on the center’s satellite information, ice coverage this year is equal to the record-low 2007 level.

The average extent of Arctic sea ice was 14.69 million square kilometers in April, which is just 310,000 sq. km. below the 1979 to 2000 average. The rate of decline in ice coverage for the same months was 41,000 sq. km. (16,000 square miles) daily.

The center pointed out the ice extent for April was the largest for that month in the past 10 years. It laid the phenomenon to changing wind patterns that caused older, thicker ice to move southward along Greenland’s east coast, where it will probably melt in summer.

Mark Serreze of the center forecast the ice decline this year would even break 2007′s record.

To show the extent of ice melting, University of Manitoba researcher David Barber said in 1981, 90 percent of the Arctic ice pack was made of multiyear ice-the kind that stops ships. Now, multiyear ice has dwindled to 18 percent.

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