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>In the intervening three decades, nearly half of the Arctic ice cap has melted away I don't understand how they can say this? https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_i
by soperj 8y ago
>In the intervening three decades, nearly half of the Arctic ice cap has melted away
I don't understand how they can say this?
https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/ https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/
- Filligree 8y agoIt's the difference between volume and area. The area hasn't shrunk very much, but all the ice that's there is thinner. The thickness of the ice has very little effect on anything... until it hits zero, a point which we are rapidly approaching.
- tejohnso 8y agoThe Arctic sea ice extent September average in 2012 was about 45% lower than the 1981-2010 average. Recent years haven't been quite as bad. http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/sea_ice.html http://nsidc.org/cryosphere/sotc/sea_ice.html And it looks like volume is a bit worse than extent. http://psc.apl.uw.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/schweiger/ice_volume/BPIOMASIceVolumeAnomalyCurrentV2.1_CY.png http://psc.apl.uw.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/schweiger...
- soperj 8y agothat's because there was a hurricane that moved a lot of ice around right near the end of the melt season. If there's less than 15% in the area, they consider it melted out. It's an anomaly year.
- RickJWagner 8y agoNice graph. Yeah, it looks like it is a decline but far less than 50%.