According to a new NASA study, Arctic perennial sea ice has been decreasing at a rate of 9 percent per decade since the 1970s.
The photographs show the difference between 1979 and 2003.
The changes in Arctic ice may be a harbinger of global climate change, says Josefino Comiso, researcher at Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland.
In a recent Journal of Climate paper, Comiso notes that most of the recent global warming occurred over the last decade, with the largest temperature increase occurring over North America.
Researchers suspect the loss of Arctic sea ice may be caused by changing atmospheric pressure patterns over the Arctic that move sea ice around, and by warming Arctic temperatures that result from the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
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Hi there – thanks for this article – I’m using it to find info for my next post.
Thanks a lot. my teacher directed me to this website address, and its amazing how rapidly the sea ice has melted in as little as 20 years. Hate to think whats going to happen to the beautiful glaciers of our current time…