arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter - bbc news

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18/4/2015 Arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter - BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31976749 1/11 Science & Environment Science & Environment Arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter By Helen Briggs BBC Environment correspondent 19 March 2015 Science & Environment News Sport Weather iPlayer TV Radio More

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  • 18/4/2015 Arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter - BBC News

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31976749 1/11

    Science & EnvironmentScience & Environment

    Arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winterBy Helen BriggsBBC Environment correspondent

    19 March 2015 Science & Environment

    News Sport Weather iPlayer TV Radio More

  • 18/4/2015 Arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter - BBC News

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31976749 2/11

    The maximum ice extent marks the beginning of the melt season for Arctic sea ice

    Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has fallen to the lowest recorded level for the winterseason, according to US scientists.

    The maximum this year was 14.5 million sq km, said the National Snow and Ice Data Center atthe University of Colorado in Boulder.

    This is the lowest since 1979, when satellite records began.

    A recent study found that Arctic sea ice had thinned by 65% between 1975 and 2012.

    Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at theLondon School of Economics said: "The gradual disappearance of ice at the poles is havingprofound consequences for people, animals and plants in the polar regions, as well as around theworld, through sea level rise."

    The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said the maximum level of sea ice for winterwas reached this year on 25 February and the ice was now beginning to melt as the Arctic movedinto spring.

    The amount measured at the end of February is 130,000 sq km below the previous record winterlow, measured in 2011.

    An unusually warm February in parts of Alaska and Russia may have contributed to the dwindlingsea ice, scientists believe.

  • 18/4/2015 Arctic sea ice extent hits record low for winter - BBC News

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31976749 3/11

    Researchers will provide the monthly average data for March in early April, which is viewed as abetter indicator of climate effects.

    Nasa scientist Walt Meier said: "The amount of ice at the maximum is a function of not only thestate of the climate but also ephemeral and often local weather conditions.

    "The monthly value smoothes out these weather effects and so is a better reflection of climateeffects."

    Analysis by David Shukman, Science editor, BBC News

    The Arctic Ocean freezes every winter and much of the sea-ice then thaws every summer, andthat process will continue whatever happens with climate change. Even if the Arctic continues tobe one of the fastest-warming regions of the world, it will always be plunged into bitterly cold polardark every winter. And year-by-year, for all kinds of natural reasons, there's huge variety of thestate of the ice.

    So what does this new record for the lowest level of winter ice actually mean?

    For a start, it does not automatically follow that a record amount of ice will melt this summer.More important for determining the size of the annual thaw is the state of the weather as themidnight sun approaches and temperatures rise. But over the more than 30 years of satelliterecords, scientists have observed a clear pattern of decline, decade-by-decade.

    So at some point this century the summers are on course to be clear of ice, opening up newshipping lanes, making it easier to access the region's oil and gas and possibly also altering thepath of the jet stream that drives our weather. So the matter of when all this might happen is thesubject of intense research.

    Meanwhile, at the other end of the world, researchers are puzzling over the growth of sea-icearound parts of Antarctica. Overall, there is a fall in the global total of sea-ice but with lots ofquestions about its pace.

    Commenting on the data, Alexander Shestakov, director of the WWF Global Arctic Programme,said: "This is not a record to be proud of.

    "Low sea ice can create a series of reactions that further threaten the Arctic and the rest of theglobe."

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