The Mystery at the Heart of This Year's Record-Setting Arctic Ice Melt
You have probably heard that the Arctic has less sea ice right now than humans have ever recorded. The new record, set yesterday, beat the previous low, which was measured in September 2007."By itself it's just a number, and occasionally records are going to get set," said National Snow and Ice Data Center scientist Walt Meier in an official statement. "But in the context of what's happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it's an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing."
There are two odd things about this sad record of global change.
First, it's only late August, several weeks before the traditional time when the sea ice melting stopped. That could mean that the melt is stopping earlier and could begin to recover earlier. Or we may have several weeks to go of melting, in which case, this year's low could not just break but shatter 2007's record.
Second, if the melt continues for days or weeks more, the melt will end up catastrophically lower than anyone anticipated.http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/08/the-mystery-at-the-heart-of-this-years-record-setting-arctic-ice-melt/261684/
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