The extent of Arctic sea ice fell to the lowest July value since the beginning of satellite measurements in the late 1970s. In the Russian Arctic, around one Million square kilometers are covered less by sea ice as compared to the average of the previous seven years, as the Bremerhaven Alfred-Wegener-Institute (Awi) announced on Monday.
throughout the Arctic, the sea ice extent is currently at six million square kilometers, which is 16 percent below the average of the years 2013 to 2019. In the Winter, had been established in the framework of the “Mosaic”Expedition, the ice thickness is particularly low values. “We see in the last 15 years, a smaller thickness and extent than in all years previously. This is the consequence of the climate warming,“ said the Awi sea ice physicist Marcel Nicolaus.
the Atlantic-Pacific sea route ice-free
the East Siberian coast, it was in may and June of this year, more than 6 degrees Celsius warmer than the long-term average. To bring “So early in the year so a lot of heat in the System, accelerated and premature melting of the ice,” says Nicolaus. A hot air cell via this Region dominated the weather in the Arctic and made for temperatures far above the long-term average value. In the Wake of the snow melted early in the year and the Siberian permafrost began to thaw.
The hot air cell, with its extremely high temperatures in Siberia but left not just the permafrost soil thawing, but also the extent of sea ice go back. Whether the Trend goes up to the annual Minimum in September, so on, could not yet predict the development depends on the weather conditions.
According to data from the Awi have pulled the ice, especially far from the Siberian coast, and the northeast passage was already in mid-July ice-free. Der6.500Kilometer long sea route in the Arctic ocean connects the Atlantic and the Pacific. As ice-free, the researchers will consider those areas in which less than 15 percent of the ocean from sea ice are covered.
“In this sector of the Arctic, we have now declared, with 1.7 square kilometers of sea ice extent of 1 Million square kilometers less ice compared to the average of the previous seven years, equivalent to about 40 per cent more an icefree ocean”, Dr. Gunnar Spreen from the Institute for environmental physics University of Bremen.