Arctic ice extent, volume could hit record lows in 2010
May 26th, 2010 by Jim JustThe National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that, after a late start, Arctic sea ice extent has now dipped below 2007 levels at this stage of the melt season. 2007 is the year Arctic sea ice reached its record low extent.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has a terrific graphic on its website showing multiple years of Arctic ice extent. As you can see, it’s much too early to predict that 2010 will see a new record low, although conditions in the Arctic such as areas of open water in the pack ice and broad areas of more scattered ice cover indicate that the ice may be posed to retreat rapidly.
The area of sea-ice cover is often defined in two ways: sea-ice “extent” and sea-ice “area.” Sea ice extent is defined as the areal sum of sea ice covering the ocean (sea ice + open ocean), whereas the “area” definition counts only sea ice covering a fraction of the ocean (sea ice only). Thus, the sea-ice extent is always larger than the sea-ice area.
Regardless of ice extent, Arctic ice volume continues to hit record lows.
