Arctic sea ice News

Historically, September is the month that sees the Arctic Ocean's least ice cover during the year after the short polar summer.

"Presently this heat is trapped below the surface layer. Should it be mixed up to the surface, there is enough heat to entirely melt the sea-ice pack that covers this region for most of the year," said Mary-Louise Timmermans, a professor at Yale University, US.

The discourse on climate change has been growing since a long time and with the phenomenon making its presence felt every day, it doesn't seem like it will end soon.

The finding has prompted fears that as the ice melts, because of climate change, plastic that has long been trapped in it is flowing into the Arctic.

Understanding all causes of the sea ice retreat is crucial for accurately projecting the rate of future loss, and trying to slow it.

The 2 degrees Celsius target may be insufficient to prevent an ice-free Arctic, James Screen and Daniel Williamson of Exeter University in Britain wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change after a statistical review of ice projections.

The study covers 12 years of observations at a West Greenland field site near Russell Glacier, a dynamic front protruding from the massive inland ice sheet that covers most of the island.

In contrast, a different beluga population, also in Alaska, that migrates and feeds in the same areas does not appear to have changed its migration timing with changes in sea ice, researchers said.

Experts also claim that the same warming is likely to worsen and decline the population of wild reindeer.

Warming temperatures caused the oceans to warm up as well, which in turn caused above average sea ice loss.

One of the reasons is that the multiyear ice used to be a pretty consolidated ice pack and now we're seeing relatively smaller chunks of old ice interspersed with younger ice.

A recent study conducted by NASA claims that arctic sea ice is swiftly losing its fortification due to warming atmosphere.

The scientists felt it was unlikely that this year's summertime sea ice minimum extent will set a new record, but, it seems that they've been proven wrong.

The melt slowed down in June, but scientists say the rate of ice loss picked up again during the first two weeks of August, and is now greater than average for this time of the year.  

Scientists warned that due to persistent warming this coming September, Arctic sea ice would set another record in melting of polar ice.

Both transport a lot of heat, moisture and clouds over the Greenland ice sheet, leading to more melting, the researchers pointed out.

The NASA study challenges the oft-repeated findings of the United Nation's panel on climate change, the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that forecast a grim future for the melting ice sheets of the Antarctic.

Reaching its likely minimum extent for 2015, Arctic sea`s minimum ice extent was the fourth lowest in the satellite record since observations from space began.