The Arctic sea ice pack thawed to its third-lowest summer level on record – up slightly compared to the last two years but continuing an overall decline due to climate change.
Minimum extent was reached on 12 September (2009) when it covered just 5.1 million square kilometres. This falls 20 percent below the 30-year average minimum ice cover for the Arctic summer (since satellites began measuring in 1979), and 24 percent less than the 1979-2000 average.
This year’s minimum represents a loss of about two-thirds of the winter maximum (measured at the height of winter in March). In contrast, sea ice shrank by just over half each summer during the 1980s and 1990s.
Shrinking sea ice extent endangers polar bears and the entire Arctic ecosystem
The lowest summer minimum ever recorded was reached in September 2007, with the second lowest level reached last year. This year’s minimum comes in third lowest.
Even though this year’s minimum is higher than the last two years, it does not mean that global warming has stopped or reversed. Scientists expect fluctuations from year to year in many biological phenomena (including sea ice) – It is the direction and slope of the trend that is important, rather than any one year’s measurement.
Related: Arctic geese don’t fly south for winter.
The Third lowest Arctic sea-ice minimum for 2009 by Climate Change HEALTH, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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