A New Record for Melting in the Arctic

Photo By: NASA

On August 26 researchers recorded the lowest-ever recorded extent of Arctic sea ice, an area of 1.58 million square miles, below the record set just five years previously. Melting typically continues well into September, until the annual refreezing begins. The extraordinary loss of ice over the past several summers has led to increased warming in the region, as the energy from sunlight is absorbed by dark-colored water, rather than reflected by light-colored ice. The result is thinner ice, more susceptible to melting. Sea ice extent has, for a decade, been recorded well below averages, setting a new normal.

NASA describes the image pictured here:

"This image was made from observations collected by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) on the satellites of the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Sea ice appears in shades of white and light blue, with white indicating the greatest concentrations of ice. Open ocean water is blue, and land is gray. The yellow outline shows the median minimum ice extent for 1979-2000—in other words, areas that were at least 15 percent ice-covered in at least half the years between 1979 and 2000—on August 26."

> Related: Report on the 2011 Arctic Sea Ice Melt

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