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NASA: Arctic Sea Ice 2nd-Lowest On Record (earthsky.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from EarthSky: NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said on September 15, 2016 that summertime Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its annual minimum on September 10. With fall approaching and temperatures in the Arctic dropping, it's unlikely more ice will melt, and so the 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent will likely be tied with 2007 for the second-lowest yearly minimum in the satellite record. Satellite data showed this year's minimum at 1.60 million square miles (4.14 million square km). NASA said in a statement: "Since satellites began monitoring sea ice in 1978, researchers have observed a steep decline in the average extent of Arctic sea ice for every month of the year [...] The sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas helps regulate the planet's temperature, influences the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, and impacts Arctic communities and ecosystems. Arctic sea ice shrinks every year during the spring and summer until it reaches its minimum yearly extent. Sea ice regrows during the frigid fall and winter months, when the sun is below the horizon in the Arctic." The NASA/NSIDC statement explained why the melt of Arctic sea ice surprised scientists in 2016. For one thing, it changed pace several times: "The melt season began with a record low yearly maximum extent in March and a rapid ice loss through May. But in June and July, low atmospheric pressures and cloudy skies slowed down the melt. Then, after two large storms went across the Arctic basin in August, sea ice melt picked up speed through early September." NASA posted an animation on YouTube that "shows the evolution of the Arctic sea ice cover from its wintertime maximum extent, which was reached on Mar. 24, 2016, and was the lowest on record for the second year in a row, to its apparent yearly minimum, which occurred on Sept. 10, 2016, and is the second lowest in the satellite era."

3 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Re:But climate change is a myth!!! YODA GREASE by sexconker · · Score: 1, Troll

    How much oil is used in manufacturing those cars and building and maintaining those roads or generating and delivering the electricity they run on?

  2. Re:But There's Record High Ice in the South by GeekWithAKnife · · Score: 0, Troll


    Dude, where do you get off coming up with this shit?

    No one wants to hear anything except how anthropogenic global warming is melting all the ice and we're soon going to extinct the planet.

    Your opinion that there's some data that isn't doom and gloom makes me suspect you are some sort of in-closet global warming denier/self hater.

    Just read history. Climate change never happened at this rate before because there weren't any cars then. Ocean toxicity was never a problem. Even coral lived forever.

    --
    A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
  3. Re: But climate change is a myth!!! YODA GREASE by kenh · · Score: 0, Troll

    We had a chance to turn this around in the 70s, but blew it because climate change is a myth.

    No, in the 70s the problem was global cooling and the coming ice age.

    If we acted in the 70s we would have focused our collective energies on solving the "global cooling crisis", not the intermediate "global warming crisis" or the current catch-all "Climate Change Crisis".

    The problem with 'settled, indisputable, scientific facts' about the climate is they keep evolving.

    --
    Ken