National Snow & Ice Data Center - Arctic Sea Ice Already At All-Time Record Low

[hatrack]

17 August 2007
Overview of current sea ice conditions

Yesterday and today, Arctic sea ice surpassed the previous single-day (absolute minimum) record for the lowest extent ever measured by satellite. Sea ice extent has fallen below the 2005 record low absolute minimum and is still melting. Sea ice extent is currently tracking at 5.26 million square kilometers (2.02 million square miles), just below the 2005 record absolute minimum of 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles).

Current sea ice conditions: August 16, 2007

Arctic sea ice has now surpassed all previous records for the lowest absolute minimum extent. Satellite measurements recorded the previous record, 5.32 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles), on September 20–21, 2005. As of this morning, the extent was 5.26 million square kilometers (2.02 million square miles).

Figure 1 compares ice extent on August 17, 2007, with September 21, 2005. Note that the magenta lines, which indicate the corresponding monthly median for 1979–2000, look different from each other because the August monthly median is higher than the September monthly median.

Sea ice extent is particularly low in the East Siberian side of the Arctic (the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas) and the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska. Ice in the Canadian Archipelago is also quite low. Along the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean, sea ice extent is not as strikingly low, but is still less than normal.



EDIT

You can get the full-sized image by linking to NSIDC and clicking on the thumbnail, which I've copied here.

http://nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20070810_index.html