NASA - Rate Of Arctic Sea Ice Loss During August 2008 Fastest Ever Recorded - AFP

[hatrack]

Following a record-breaking season of arctic sea ice decline in 2007, NASA scientists have kept a close watch on the 2008 melt season. Although the melt season did not break the record for ice loss, NASA data are showing that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before.
Each year at the end of summer, sea ice in the Arctic melts to reach its annual minimum. Ice that remains, or "perennial ice," has survived from year to year and contains old, thick ice. The area of arctic sea ice, including perennial and seasonal ice, has taken a hit in past years as melt has accelerated. Researchers believe that if the rate of decline continues, all arctic sea ice could be gone within the century.

"I was not expecting that ice cover at the end of summer this year would be as bad as 2007 because winter ice cover was almost normal," said Joey Comiso of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We saw a lot of cooling in the Arctic that we believe was associated with La Nina. Sea ice in Canada had recovered and even expanded in the Bering Sea and Baffin Bay. Overall, sea ice recovered to almost average levels. That was a good sign that this year might not be as bad as last year."

The 2008 sea ice minimum was second to 2007 for the record-lowest extent of sea ice, according to a joint announcement Sept. 16 by NASA and the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. As of Sept. 12, 2008, the ice extent was 1.74 million square miles. That's 0.86 million square miles below the average minimum extent recorded from 1979 to 2000, according to NSIDC.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/NASA_Data_Show_Arctic_Saw_Fastest_August_Sea_Ice_Retreat_on_Record_999.html

[whistle]

1. How close to Earth is Planet X now?

[Teaser]

2. Since we're destined for a Mad Max future..

I had better start teaching my kid about how to use a firearm, a razor-blade boomerang, and to drive really shitty cars real fast.

[phantom power]

3. I have to wonder if Joey Comiso was aware...

of how much thinner that ice was. Because if he was aware of that, he would not have been so surprised.

[XemaSab]

4. "Gone within the century?"

I think the odds of the ice being gone within the decade are better than the odds of the ice lasting another 92 years. And yeah, I know there's only one more year in the decade.

My money's on: