Arctic Sea Ice
AOTANI, Masayasu
We will use this story for the next three weeks.
This is the first one third.
A New Report says Arctic Sea Ice is Melting More Quickly Than Scientists Had Thought
Also on SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, experts say a big, but rare cat is close to disappearing from the wild. We also tell about broken bones and how to treat them. Transcript of radio broadcast:
28 May 2007
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.
And I'm Steve Ember. On our program this week, we will tell about a new study of the Arctic Ocean. We will also tell about a big cat that animal experts say is close to disappearing from the wild. And, we will talk about broken bones and how to treat them.
A new report says sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting more quickly than expected. American scientists say the ice is melting even faster than computer programs had estimated.
The scientists work for the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. Results of their study were reported on Geophysical Research Letters, a website of the American Geophysical Union.
Scientists know that climate change has a major effect on the Arctic Ocean partly because sea ice is disappearing. They also know that areas of open seawater are expanding. Such areas are known to take in sunlight and increase temperatures. Scientists say this has helped to cause the loss of the Arctic's ice cover.
For the study, the American scientists compared eighteen computer programs with observations made by satellites and other instruments. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used the computer programs to prepare its two thousand seven estimates of climate change.
The computer programs gave estimates of the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean in the month of September. September is when the Arctic has the least ice, after the warm, summer months. The computer estimates suggested an ice loss of two and a half percent for every ten-year period between nineteen fifty-three and two thousand six.
Newer studies of the Arctic have used information gathered by aircraft, satellites and ships. This information showed a loss of September ice cover of almost eight percent for every ten-year period between nineteen fifty-three and last year. This means the ice is disappearing about thirty years faster than the computer programs estimated.
The scientists say the programs might not have recognized the full effect of increased carbon dioxide and other gasses in Earth's atmosphere. They say their study suggests the gasses may have more of an effect than had been thought.
The study also measured the amount of ice lost in the Arctic in March. That is when the most Arctic sea ice is present. It showed the loss of ice in March is much less than the loss in September. Yet the computer estimates were wrong about how much. The new report says the March loss was almost two percent for every ten-year period between nineteen fifty-three and two thousand six. That is three times more than the loss suggested by the computer programs.
Study organizers say their findings confirm that the Arctic's ice cover is melting…and that this is happening faster than had been thought. They also say the study shows that summer sea ice in the Arctic may disappear much earlier than scientists had expected.
(4’55”)
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