Arctic Sea Ice Hit Record Low Volume During Winter 2012-13 - EU Space Agency

[hatrack]

The thickness of the Arctic’s ice was whittled to a new winter low, according to data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat mission. The ice’s volume, less than 15,000 cubic km between March and April, is a new data point in the long chronicle of Arctic ice decline, a process that scientists expect could be catastrophic for the planet.

The news from the ESA comes days after scientists reported that the ice’s decline this summer was less dramatic than the shrinkage during last year’s summer minimum. Rather than marking the resurgence of the Arctic ice, as some British newspapers have erroneously reported, the smaller-than-expected decline in breadth is understood by scientists as a small blip in what is otherwise a long-term ebbing of the ice.

And just as the ice is becoming less extensive, it is also becoming thinner – a trend that scientists point to as the most indicative sign that climate change is taking a toll on the Arctic.

CryoSat is the second iteration of the ESA’s CryoSat mission, after the first satellite was destroyed during launch in 2005 and was replaced with CryoSat-2. The satellite has been in low Earth orbit since 2010, where it has over three consecutive years taken measurements of the Arctic ice using an interferometric radar altimeter, a highly sophisticated instrument that assesses the thickness of the ice based on radar data about the altitude of the spacecraft.

EDIT

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2013/0911/Arctic-ice-continues-to-thin-and-thin-European-satellite-reveals

[CRH]

1. It looks like this years minimum volume, ...

will finish about 1600-1800 km3 above last years low. It will be interesting to see if the March April 2014 winter low ice volume correlates and stays above this years record winter low. If it dips near or below this winters record low, that would indicate an influence from higher water temperature without the effects of atmospheric influence. Time will tell.