Melting Arctic Ice Shrinks To Second Lowest Level

 

Each year the sea ice melts in the spring and summer, and reforms naturally in the colder months, however, the ice shrinkage in 2016 confirms a clear downward trend. With such record losses, scientists are beginning to imply the arctic could be ice-free within a few generations.

September 10th marked the summer low-point according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado. The center reported that after the summer melt, sea ice coverage was reduced to only 4.14m sq km. Whilst sea ice levels have been lower in 2012, where sea ice levels dropped to 3.39m sq km, the NSIDC’s director Mark Serreze says these records confirm fears of an overall downward trend.

“There is no evidence of recovery here. We’ve always known that the Arctic is going to be the early warning system for climate change. What we’ve seen this year is reinforcing that.”

To understand these losses, this year’s minimum of 4.14m sq km represents almost half the level of sea ice observed in the 1970s, when studies first began.
Ice thickness has also reduced by approximately 40 percent over the past 35 years. Moreover, observers, such as Cambridge ice scientist Peter Wadhams, predict that by the summers of 2017 or 2018, ice coverage will be so sparse that ships will be able to pass through the central basin of the Arctic. Dr. Jan Lieser, a marine glaciologist with Australia’s Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, also contends that there could be no more sea ice within three generations.

However, the effects of melting sea ice are not limited to the Arctic region. Scientists have long been observing the Arctic’s changing landscape in order to understand the ramifications of climate change for the rest of the world. Scientist Peter Wadhams expects that the reduction of sea ice will allow the Arctic seas to warm and cause methane gases to be released into the atmosphere. Sea ice also has the unique ability to reflect approximately 50 percent of the solar radiation it receives back into space. So, losing large amounts of ice coverage increases the surface area of water capable of absorbing solar heat, thereby causing higher rates of global warming.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in their 2013 report on sea level change, noted that the complete loss of the arctic ice sheet is “not inevitable.” There is some hope that “if the surrounding temperatures decline before the ice sheet is eliminated… it might regrow.” However, the resounding consensus amongst ice scientists is that these new figures are the “new normal,” thus confirming a potentially irreversible downward trend towards ice-free Arctic summers.

With sea levels predicted to rise between 60 to 90 centimetres within the century, scientists are monitoring the melting ice with trepidation. Penn State University Scientist, Michael Mann believes it is

“increasingly likely that the dramatic decrease in Arctic sea ice is impacting weather,” including being “partly responsible for dramatic, persistent and damaging weather anomalies” that has occurred over recent years.

These effects continue to worry residents of low-lying island nations, who have witnessed the flooding of their homes in the Pacific, including five reef islands in the remote Solomon Islands that have been lost completely due to sea-levels rising and coastal erosion.

For now, the sea ice is entering its refreezing process once more. Researchers will be busy monitoring the ice and waiting in anticipation until its yearly peak in March to make further predictions.

Click this link to view a video of NASA satellite images recording the sea ice shrinkage

Rebecca Piesse

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