April
4, 2007
ARCTIC SEA
ICE NARROWLY MISSED
RECORD LOW IN WINTER 2007, SAYS UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
TEAM
The maximum extent
of Arctic sea
ice in winter 2007 was the second lowest on satellite record, narrowly
missing
the 2006 record, according to a team of University
of Colorado
at Boulder
researchers.
The Arctic sea-ice
extent, which
is the area of ocean covered by at least 15 percent ice, was 5.7
million square
miles in March 2007, slightly higher than the record low of 5.6 million
square
miles measured in March 2006. The declining sea ice has been blamed on
higher
winter temperatures in the Arctic, a result of rising greenhouse gases
in the
atmosphere and strong natural variability in the ice, said researcher
Walt
Meier of CU-Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center.
"This year's
wintertime low
extent is another milestone in a strong downward trend," said Meier.
"We're still seeing near-record lows (in sea ice) and
higher-than-normal
temperatures, and we expect this downward trend to continue in future
years."
While researchers
monitor Arctic
sea ice year round, they pay special attention to the months of March
and
September because they generally mark the annual maximum and minimum
sea-ice
extents respectively for the year, Meier said. Sea ice usually stops
growing,
or recovering, from the summer melt each March.
A review study led
by CU-Boulder
research scientist Mark Serreze of NSIDC and published in Science last month indicated Arctic
sea-ice extent trends have been
negative for every month since 1979, when reliable satellite
record-keeping
efforts began. The September minimum measurements indicate the Arctic has been losing about
38,000 square miles of ice
annually.
##
Contact:
Stephanie
Renfrow
University
of
Colorado at Boulder
303-492-1497
srenfrow@nsidc.org
This
text
derived from:
http://www.colorado.edu/
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