Arctic sea ice 2012

The news from the Greenland is startling.  There has been an unprecedented amount of ice melt in July 2012 and this has made the headlines. 

You can read about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18978483

More significant but possibly less news worthy is the steady attrition of the arctic sea ice.  This is monitored daily by US satellites and the daily satellite images  make fascinating viewing.  Here is the satellite image from 24 July.

You can find the full story here: http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

As the website records:
“Arctic sea ice continued to track at levels far below average through the middle of July, with open water in the Kara and Barents seas reaching as far north as typically seen during September. Melt onset began earlier than normal throughout most of the Arctic.”

The area of sea ice is close to the all time low; keep watching to find out what happens in August and September, when the ice cap will be at its smallest.

By Adrian Shaw