[Vision2020] NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice Extent 8-13-2012 at Record Low

[Ted Moffett]

Of course, sea ice extent is perhaps not as important a fact as sea ice
volume, or the amount of older ice remaining over a few years.  But it
seems extent receives a lot more media attention,  One cold winter can
result in a lot of thin ice cover extent that will appear to indicate a
rebound in Arctic sea ice, when long term this is not the case, given the
thin new ice is very vulnerable to summer melt.

But this development reveals how ridiculous is all the talk in the
anthropogenic climate change denialasphere about Arctic sea ice recovery,
or that in general the global cryosphere is not in decline.

University of Washington PIOMAS estimates of Arctic sea ice volume from the
Polar Science Center indicate it likely a new record low will be set in
2012:

http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/schweiger/ice_volume/BPIOMASIceVolumeAnomalyCurrentV2.png?%3C?php%20echo%20time%28%29%20
?
http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/08/piomas-august-2012.html

The graph at the following website demonstrates the rapid loss of Arctic
sea ice extent in August 2012.  In about 4 to 6 weeks we will know if 2012
will set a new summer record for minimum Arctic sea ice extent:

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Arctic sea ice extent on August 13 was 4.90 million square kilometers (1.9
million square miles). This is 2.81 million square kilometers (1.08 million
square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average extent for the date, and is
450,000 square kilometers (173,745 square miles) below the previous record
low for the date, which occurred in 2007.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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