Accelerating Polar Ice Melt Approaches Tipping Point |
Perennial ice cover (or ice at the end of the summer) is currently declining at the rate of 11.4% per decade as observed from 1978 to 2007. Acceleration in the decline makes it difficult for ice to recover because of ice-albedo feedback effects which has caused increases in solar heating of the mixed layer on account of the observed increase in open water area of 23% per decade in the Arctic basin since 1978.
Feb. 2008, Josefino C. Comiso, Code 614.1, NSAA/GSFC. Tipping Point for the Arctic Perennial Ice Cover.
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North Pole could be ice free in 2008 |
 "The set-up for this summer is disturbing," says Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). A number of factors have this year led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season.
US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
A number of factors have this year led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season.
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Melting of arctic sea ice and the Greenland Ice Sheet was found to be severely accelerated |
 24 Apr 2008, WWF Arctic division
Climate change is having a greater and faster impact on the Arctic than previously thought, according to a new study by the WWF.
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Antarctic Ice Shelf disintegration underscores a warming world |
 25 March 2008, Joint press release, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) - part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder; the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), United Kingdom; and the Earth Dynamic System Research Center, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan.
Satellite imagery from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder reveals that a 13,680 square kilometer (5,282 square mile) ice shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica.
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Antarctic Ice Shelf "hangs by a thread" |
March 25, 2008, Press Release, Natural Environment Research Council of British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
"Climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula has pushed the limit of viability for ice shelves further south – setting some of them that used to be stable on a course of retreat and eventual loss. The Wilkins breakout won't have any effect on sea-level because it is floating already, but it is another indication of the impact that climate change is having on the region."
Professor David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey
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