Arctic sea ice at 'lowest ever levels'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Arctic sea ice at 'lowest ever levels'*
From correspondents in Washington
August 11, 2007 12:26am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
SEA ice in the Northern Hemisphere has plunged to the lowest levels ever
measured, US polar specialists said, adding they expect the record low
to be "annihilated" by summer's end.
In data posted on the Internet yesterday, William Chapman and colleagues
at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana said sea ice in the
Arctic region had plunged to new lows about 30 days before the normal
point of the annual lows.
“Today, the Northern Hemisphere sea ice area broke the record for the
lowest recorded ice area in recorded history,” Mr Chapman, a researcher
on Arctic meteorology of the university's Department of Atmospheric
Sciences, wrote in the online publication, The Cryosphere Today.
“The new record came a full month before the historic summer minimum
typically occurs.
"There is still a month or more of melt likely this year.
"It is therefore almost certain that the previous 2005 record will be
annihilated by the final 2007 annual minima closer to the end of this
summer.”
The drop in sea ice this year is more geographically sweeping than in
previous low years, the scientists said.
In earlier low years, big drops in the level of sea ice were confined to
specific areas, such as the North Atlantic, the Bering Sea, the Beaufort
Sea, or other locales.
“The character of 2007's sea ice melt is unique in that it is dramatic
and covers the entire Arctic sector,” they said.
"Atlantic, Pacific and even the central Arctic sectors are showing large
negative sea ice area anomalies."