Parts of Arctic now 'like a giant slushie'

Sea ice in the Arctic has hit a record low, and scientists say that it could accelerate global warming.?

By Wynne Parry,?LiveScience Senior Writer / August 28, 2012

Sea ice in the Chukchi Sea, on July 20, 2011. Scientists are setting out to conduct the first comprehensive study of marine life in the Chukchi Sea.

NASA/Kathryn Hansen

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Long-term thinning of Arctic sea ice combined with an intense, windy storm over the Arctic in early August contributed to a new record low for sea-ice extent, scientists said Monday (Aug. 27).

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"It used to be?the Arctic ice cover?was like a big block of ice," said Walt Meier, a research scientist with the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) during a press conference held after the new record low was set on Sunday (Aug. 26). "Now it's become crushed ice and that is a lot easier to melt and melt more quickly. Parts of the Arctic have become like a giant slushie. [That] makes them more vulnerable to these types of storms."

The storm persisted over the central Arctic Ocean for several days, bringing warm and very windy conditions to the Chukchi and East Siberian Seas, followed by low temperatures. Strong wind and wave action from storms like this can increase melt by breaking up ice, according to a NSIDC report following the storm.

On Sunday (Aug. 26), Arctic sea-ice extent fell to a new record: 1.58 million square miles (4.10 million square kilometers), surpassing the previous low, 1.61 square miles (4.17 square kilometers) set on Sept. 18, 2007, the NSIDC reported. [10 Things to Know About Sea Ice]

Sea-ice watchers?saw this coming, at least to some degree.

"As early as maybe July we were able to project that the 2012 ice cover will likely be similar to 2007, but then in August, when we have this storm, the values for 2012 started to go down lower," said Josefino Comiso, a sea ice researcher with NASA.

Sea-ice extent describes the area of ocean?covered at least 15 percent by sea ice?as measured by satellite instruments. Continuous satellite measurements of sea-ice extent date back to the late 1970s.

Sea-ice extent grows and retreats with the season every year. While there are significant fluctuations in this cycle from year to year, by the late 1990s satellite measurements indicated there was a strong downward trend in sea-ice extent, said Claire Parkinson a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

By the end of the 1990s, submarine data showed the ice was thinning as well, Parkinson said.

The old ice, which survives year after year and maintains thicknesses of 10 to 12 feet (3 to 3.6 meters), has been disappearing from the Arctic waters, Meier said. Now, Arctic sea ice has become thinner and is more easily melted or pushed around by storms, he said. "The Arctic Ocean is really a different place than it used to be," he said.

The loss of Arctic sea ice has serious implications for the animals ??polar bears?and walruses ? that use it as habitat.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DPYkY-HAgh0/Parts-of-Arctic-now-like-a-giant-slushie

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