“Basically, right now, we're quite a ways below 2007, and neck and neck with 2010, which was the lowest for this time of year … we're very near record low levels for this time of year," said Dr. Walt Meier, a sea ice expert with the Boulder-based National Snow and Ice Data Center.
The steady decline of Arctic sea ice extent is considered to be one of the key symptoms of global warming, with serious implications for climate, weather, ocean currents and sea level rise. Several recent studies suggest that the warming in the Arctic is directly affecting seasonal weather patterns by changing air pressure gradients that drive the speed and shape of the jet stream. And just last month, atmospheric scientists reported monthly average carbon dioxide levels at remote Arctic sensing stations hovered above 400 parts per million for the first time on record.
“The setup looks a lot like it did in 2007 for the moment, but it's still pretty early. It's hard to tell if it's going to follow 2007 but there's certainly the potential to have a very low year," Meier said.
“There's already a lot of open water," he said, explaining that the darker colored water (compared to the ice) more readily absorbs incoming solar radiation, which is at its maximum at the summer solstice. That, in turn, has the potential to magnify the melting even more during the latter part of the summer.
“One of the reasons we've seen that steep drop is that the Bering sea melted out pretty quickly once it got going," Meier said, referring to the sector of the Arctic Ocean between Alaska and Russia, where sea ice extent stayed higher than average nearly all winter long. Read the full report here.
Source: by Bob Berwyn, Summit County Citizens Voice.
