Scientists say Arctic Ocean ice has had the weakest winter accumulation since record-keeping began 47 years ago.
The Arctic reaches its largest sea ice every March and begins its six-month melt season. The peak measurements taken Saturday were about 30,000 square miles (80,000 square kilometers) smaller than the previous lowest peak in 2017, at 5.53 million square miles (1,433 million square kilometers), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
That’s a difference in size in California.
“The temperatures are what causes ice to drop,” said Ice data scientist Walt Meyer. “You know, sea ice is especially sensitive… 31 degrees ice skating, 33 degrees swimming.”
Jennifer Francis, a scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, said it was yet another ringing alarm bell in the form of a broken record.
“It’s particularly bothering because the disappearing sea ice is a truly early warning system that warns us about a variety of difficult changes,” Francis said in an email.
Scientists said that warming conditions in the Arctic (where the region warms four times faster than other parts of the world) affect the weather elsewhere. The difference in pressure and temperature between north and south shrinkage. According to the Snow and Ice Center and Francis, the weather system is driven to run, allowing cold outbreaks and storms to soak further south, often with more rain and snow.
“The warm winter atmosphere above the Arctic affects large-scale weather patterns that affect us outside of the Arctic,” says Julienne Strobe, an ice scientist at the University of Manitoba.
Of the small sea ice, Stroeve also pointed out that it’s not just a small amount. The rest of the ice is thin enough to melt more this summer, Stroeve said. She warned that record-low areas in winter won’t guarantee record-small areas in summer.
Scientists said melting of Arctic Ocean ice — primarily in the summer — makes polar bear populations smaller, weaker and hungry. And winter sea ice is especially important for fishing and sealed puppies, Meyer said.
Since record-keeping began, the largest year for Arctic Ocean ice was in 1979 at 6.42 million square miles (16.64 million square kilometers). This means that the winter peaks of Arctic Ocean ice have been reduced by the size of Pakistan since the satellite began tracking it.
When winter sea ice is doing well, it could stretch more than half the planet towards the equator and reach the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Japan, China and Canada, Meyer said.
Meyer said that sea ice ranges have been shrinking for all four seasons, but summer is the most important season for the overall health of Arctic ice. This is because ice-free water warms faster.
The five lowest amounts of peak winter Arctic sea ice were from 2015 onwards.
Earlier this month, Antarctica was close to breaking record low-sea ice records. This is the lowest period of region collisions – and ended at the second-lowest sea level on record.
The Antarctic is generally full of sea ice, with the two poles slightly different, but in February it states that the world’s sea ice, a combination of the Arctic and Antarctic, is record low.
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