Historical minimum arctic ice

2007/09/17 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Hidrologia
• Klima
• Ingurumena

As the winter approaches, the Arctic Sea freezes and closes the way to ships. However, according to the measurements made by the European Space Agency (ESA), freezing for this time is low. Moreover, they have measured the minimum of the last 30 years and, although it is surprising, the main steps of the ships are not completely closed.

The image above is obtained from the ESA Envisat satellite. The icy sea stands out for its greenish color, while the dark grey is a non-icy maritime zone. As you can see, the sea ice has not yet coincided with the land, so the two main roads used by the boats are open or almost open, the northeastern pass that runs along the north coast of Canada (orange) and the northwest pass (blue) that runs along the coast of Siberia. The latter is closed in a single place.

The previous minimum occurred in 2005, and it has been realized that there is a million square kilometers of ice less than then. In view of the data obtained so far, it has been concluded that the Arctic ice is "going back" in the last 10 years and it has been announced that it will disappear by the year 2040-2070, that is, the Arctic sea will not freeze in winter.

Photo: ESA.