The final tally for the yearly sea-ice decline has been released by
the NSIDC.  Note the difference between the "area" value calculated by
Bill Chapman for September 16, 2007 (2.92 million sq. km), and the
"extent" number given by the NSIDC (average for the month of September
was 4.28 million square kilometers or 1.65 million square miles).
Both are very much smaller than the previous records for each
variable.

http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20071001_pressrelease.html

There's an article by Andy Revkin in today's NYT about the remarkable
loss of sea-ice this year.  Here's a link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/science/earth/02arct.html?hp

I like the photograph which accompanies the article, as it shows the
impact of the mirror like surface of the ocean at high zenith angles,
which has been something I've tried to point out for years.  One can
also see the melt ponds which form on the surface of the sea-ice.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/10/02/science/02arct.xlarge1.jpg

When the story was first linked thru the main NYT home page with a
picture of the Arctic Ocean sea-ice cover near the minimum, but that
graphic is no longer available there.  It may be seen in the
supplemental graphics, which are linked thru the "multimedia" box,
which is a FLASH player file.

There's also a story from the BBC about the large ice berg in the
Arctic, which broke off of the Ayles Ice Shelf in 2005.  The map of
it's travels is interesting too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7022192.stm

E.S.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> According to Cryosphere Today, as of 28th August, the sea ice area is
> 2.99 million km2 which is an impressive 25% below the previous record
> low (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/).


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated 
venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of 
global environmental change. 

Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the 
submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not 
gratuitously rude. 

To post to this group, send email to [email protected]

To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to