Arctic Sea Ice: Ice Cover Hits Second Lowest Mark On Record This Month

Researchers have observed through satellite images that the Arctic sea ice has melted to its second lowest level on record this month, exceeding the record low of 2012. Every year in spring, the Arctic sea freezes over the winter and starts to melt as temperatures rise.

According to the data revealed by the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado, the Arctic sea ice reached its summer low point on Sept. 10, Saturday, when it covered 1.6 million square miles (4.14 million square kilometers), the second lowest recorded in history. The lowest mark was set back in September 2012, when the sea ice reached 1.31 million square miles (3.39 million square kilometers), reported the Guardian.

The Arctic sea will freeze into ice once again as winter approaches, but, it will not get restored to its former glory. It is to be noted that in the last 35 years the thickness of the ice has significantly reduced by around 40 percent.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claims that man-made global warming is the reason that the amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic has been steadily decreasing over the past few decades.

NSIDC senior scientist Julienne Stroeve said that "We are not going back to how it was," reported Nature World News. She added that the trend is going to continue in the coming years. Stroeve said that the climate systems are turning inherently chaotic due to which there will be some temporary recovery of the ice but the condition will not turn the same as it was before.

Mark Serreze, Director at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, warned that if temperatures continue to rise at the same pace then the Arctic sea might become ice free by 2030. In fact, the shrinking ice cover is the signal that in the coming years, there will be some very dramatic losses with more typical warmer conditions.