Summer Arctic sea ice is going extinct 50% faster than predicted [View all]

[marmar]

from Grist:




Summer Arctic sea ice is going extinct 50% faster than predicted
By Philip Bump


In 2010, the European Union launched a satellite called CryoSat-2, with data analysis to be done by scientists at University College London (UCL). It had one task: determine the extent and thickness of sea ice. Previous satellites either couldn’t gauge ice thickness or had trouble penetrating cloud cover. CryoSat-2 can do both.

“Before CryoSat, we could see summer ice coverage was dropping markedly in the Arctic,” said (UCL professor Chris) Rapley. “But we only had glimpses of what was happening to ice thickness. Obviously if it was dropping as well, the loss of summer ice was even more significant. We needed to know what was happening — and now CryoSat has given us the answer.”

It just got in under the wire.


[font size="1"]Ponds on the surface of Arctic ice. (Photo by NASA.)[/font]

Combining data from a predecessor to CryoSat (named, lamely, ICESat) with on-the-ground measurements, scientists calculated the amount of Arctic sea ice in winter 2004 at 17,000 cubic kilometers, and in summer, at 14,000. .....................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/news/summer-arctic-sea-ice-is-going-extinct-50-percent-faster-than-predicted/