Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low

August 29, 2008

Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year.

Envisat observations from mid-August depict that a new record of low sea-ice coverage could be reached in a matter of weeks. The animation above is a series of mosaics of the Arctic Ocean created from images acquired between early June and mid-August 2008 from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) instrument aboard Envisat. The dark grey colour represents ice-free areas while blue represents areas covered with sea ice.

Current ice coverage in the Arctic has already reached the second absolute minimum since observations from space began 30 years ago. Because the extent of ice cover is usually at its lowest about mid-September, this year's minimum could still fall to set another record low.

Each year, the Arctic Ocean experiences the formation and then melting of vast amounts of ice that floats on the sea surface. An area of ice the size of Europe melts away every summer reaching a minimum in September. Since satellites began surveying the Arctic in 1978, there has been a regular decrease in the area covered by ice in summer - with ice cover shrinking to its lowest level on record and opening up the most direct route through the Northwest Passage in September 2007.

The direct route through the Northwest Passage - highlighted in the image above by an orange line - is currently almost free of ice, while the indirect route, called the Amundsen Northwest Passage, has been passable for almost a month. This is the second year in a row that the most direct route through the Northwest Passage has opened up.

Prof. Heinrich Miller from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany commented that, "Our ice-breaking research vessel 'Polarstern' is currently on a scientific mission in the Arctic Ocean. Departing from Iceland, the route has taken the ship through the Northwest Passage into the Canadian Basin where geophysical and geological studies will be carried out along profiles into the Makarov Basin to study the tectonic history and submarine geology of the central Arctic Ocean. In addition, oceanographic as well as biological studies will be carried out. Polarstern will circumnavigate the whole Arctic Ocean and exit through the Northeast Passage."

Regarding the use of satellite data for polar research Miller continues, "The polar regions, especially the Arctic, are very sensitive indicators of climate change. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has shown that these regions are highly vulnerable to rising temperatures and predicted that the Arctic would be virtually ice-free in the summer months by 2070. Other scientists claim it could become ice-free as early as 2040. Latest satellite observations suggest that the Arctic could be mainly ice-free even earlier."

Miller added, "At AWI we place particular emphasis on studying Arctic sea-ice, and along with in-situ studies of sea-ice thickness change satellite data have been used extensively - not only for the regular observation of changes in the Arctic and Antarctic, but also for optimising the operation of Polarstern in regions covered by sea ice."

The Arctic is one of the most inaccessible regions on Earth, so obtaining measurements of sea ice was difficult before the advent of satellites. For more than 20 years, ESA has been providing satellite data for the study of the cryosphere and hence revolutionising our understanding of the polar regions.

Satellite measurements from radar instruments can acquire images through clouds and also at night. This capability is especially important in areas prone to long periods of bad weather and extended darkness - conditions frequently encountered in the polar regions.

By making available a comprehensive dataset from its Earth Observation satellites and other ground and air-based capabilities, ESA is currently also contributing to one of the most ambitious coordinated science programme ever undertaken in the Arctic and Antarctic - the International Polar Year 2007-2008.

Further exploitation of data collected over the Arctic since 1991 is part of an ESA Initiative on Climate Change that will be proposed to the ESA Member States at its Ministerial Conference in November 2008. The proposal aims to ensure delivery of appropriate information on climate variables derived from satellites.

In 2009, ESA will make another significant contribution research into the cryosphere with the launch of CryoSat-2. The observations made over the three-year lifetime of the mission will provide conclusive evidence on the rates at which ice thickness and cover is diminishing.

European Space Agency

---

---

	Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil: The Epic Voyage of the SS Manhattan through the Northwest Passage by Ross Coen (Author) In 1969, an icebreaking tanker, the SS Manhattan, was commissioned by Humble Oil to transit the Northwest Passage in order to test the logistical and economic feasibility of an all-marine transportation system for Alaska North Slope crude oil. Proposed as an alternative to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Manhattan made two voyages to the North American Arctic and collected volumes of scientific data on ice conditions and the behavior of ships in ice. Although the Manhattan successfully navigated the Northwest Passage—closing a five-hundred-year chapter of Arctic exploration by becoming the first commercial vessel to do so—the expedition ultimately demonstrated the impracticality of moving crude oil using icebreaking ships.Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil details this historic...
	The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Alec Wilkinson (Author) In this grand and astonishing tale, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer “the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration,” Andrée’s expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend.   The Ice Balloon begins in the late nineteenth century, when nations, compelled by vanity, commerce, and science, competed with one another for the greatest discoveries, and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected. He was the first modern...
	Riddle of the Ice: A Scientific Adventure into the Arctic by Myron Arms (Author) By any account, the impenetrable barrier of sea ice that blocked the Brendan's Isle halfway up the Labrador Coast should not have been there in late July, in what was one of the hottest summers in memory a few hundred miles to the south. Frustrated and mystified at having to turn back so early in his 1991 northbound voyage, sailor Myron Arms became determined to explain the anomaly. Three years later, having pursued this obsession from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Arms took his fifty-foot sailboat and a small crew back up the coast to test his ideas--this time making it past the Arctic Circle. The days and nights at sea are an experience of both untold vastness and the closest...
	Oil and Ice: A Story of Arctic Disaster and the Rise and Fall of America's Last Whaling Dynasty by Peter Nichols (Author) "Peter Nichols has crafted a terrifyingly relevant historical narrative...A terrific read." -Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In The Heart of the Sea In 1871, America's last fleet of whaling ships was destroyed in an arctic ice storm. Miraculously, 1,218 men, women and children survived, but the disaster was catastrophic at home. Oil and Ice is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America's first oil economy, and the fate of today's petroleum industry.
	Ice Bear: The Arctic World of Polar Bears by Steven Kazlowski (Author) An intimate portrait of one of the most beloved (and endangered) species. Ice Bear: The Arctic World of Polar Bears is a stunning collection of photographs by acclaimed polar bear photographer Steven Kazlowski. Featuring mostly never-before-published images, this simple yet evocative book explores the polar bear s Arctic home and life cycle. Playful cubs, hungry boars, and intimidating sows Kazlowski's photographs capture this fascinating species in all its beautiful and fearsome glory. More than 100 full-color images reveal the polar bear s world, as well as the entire Arctic landscape: rugged ice floes, magical aurora borealis, walruses, seals, Arctic foxes and rabbits, beluga whales, and a variety of birds including the snowy owl. Kazlowski also captures the Inuit people and...
	Under Arctic Ice by Harry Bates (Author) Under Arctic Ice is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Harry Bates is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Harry Bates then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
	Seed of the Arctic Ice by Harry Bates (Author) Seed of the Arctic Ice is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Harry Bates is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Harry Bates then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
	Under Ice: Waldo Lyon and the Development of the Arctic Submarine (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series) by William M. Leary (Author), John H. Nicholson (Foreword)
	Adrift in the Ice-Fields by Charles W. Hall (Author) This book attempts to chronicle the adventures and misadventures of a party of English gentlemen, during the early spring, while shooting sea-fowl on the sea-ice by day, together with the stories with which they whiled away the long evenings, each of which is intended to illustrate some peculiar dialect or curious feature of the social life of our colonial neighbors.
	Quicklet - Alec Wilkinson's The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Niko Silvester (Author) Quicklets: Your Reading Sidekick! Our Hyperink Quicklets include an overall summary, chapter commentary, key characters, literary themes, fun trivia, and recommended related readings. ABOUT THE BOOK Except for the bottom of the sea or the center of the earth, the North Pole, at the end of the nineteenth century, was the world's last mysterious destination. The Ice Balloon: S.A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration retells the attempt by Swedish explorer S.A. Andree to reach the north pole by hydrogen balloon. Writer Alec Wilkinson recounts the whole story of Andrees venture from its first conception to the final recovery of its lost artifacts, and intersperses his tale with other events in the history of Arctic exploration. Wilkinson draws on previous accounts of Arctic...