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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • sea ice
  • Arctic
  • decline

Index Terms

  • Global Change: Abrupt/rapid climate change
  • Global Change: Climate variability
  • Cryosphere: Sea ice
  • Oceanography: General: Arctic and Antarctic oceanography
  • Global Change: Remote sensing

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 35, L01703, 6 PP., 2008
doi:10.1029/2007GL031972

Accelerated decline in the Arctic sea ice cover

Josefino C. Comiso

Cryospheric Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Claire L. Parkinson

Cryospheric Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Robert Gersten

Cryospheric Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

ADNET Systems, Inc., Lanham, Maryland, USA

RS Information Systems, McLean, Virginia, USA

Larry Stock

Cryospheric Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, Inc., Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Satellite data reveal unusually low Arctic sea ice coverage during the summer of 2007, caused in part by anomalously high temperatures and southerly winds. The extent and area of the ice cover reached minima on 14 September 2007 at 4.1 × 106 km2 and 3.6 × 106 km2, respectively. These are 24% and 27% lower than the previous record lows, both reached on 21 September 2005, and 37% and 38% less than the climatological averages. Acceleration in the decline is evident as the extent and area trends of the entire ice cover (seasonal and perennial ice) have shifted from about −2.2 and −3.0% per decade in 1979–1996 to about −10.1 and −10.7% per decade in the last 10 years. The latter trends are now comparable to the high negative trends of −10.2 and −11.4% per decade for the perennial ice extent and area, 1979–2007.

Received 8 September 2007; accepted 26 November 2007; published 3 January 2008.

Citation: Comiso, J. C., C. L. Parkinson, R. Gersten, and L. Stock (2008), Accelerated decline in the Arctic sea ice cover, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L01703, doi:10.1029/2007GL031972.

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