The Balding Arctic Sea

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Arctic Sea Ice Minimum for 2010: Third-lowest extent

The 2010 sea ice melt season ended in the Arctic, with the ice extent reaching its low for the year at 4.60 million km² (1.78 million sq. miles) on September 19, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reported, adding that 2010 Arctic sea ice extent was the third-lowest on the satellite record. (The record low of 4.13 million km² was set in 2007). Both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were open for a period during September.

Arctic sea ice extent for September 2010 was 4.90 million square kilometers (1.89 million square miles), the third-lowest in the satellite record. The magenta line shows the median ice extent for September from 1979 to 2000. Sea Ice Index data. Click images to enlarge.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

The updated time series plot puts this summer’s sea ice extent in context with other years. The solid light blue line indicates 2010; dark blue shows 2009, purple shows 2008; dashed green shows 2007; light green shows 2005; and solid gray indicates average extent from 1979 to 2000. —Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

September ice extent from 1979 to 2009 shows a continued decline. The September rate of sea ice decline since 1979 has now increased to 11.2 percent per decade. —Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

A time series of images shows the decline in September sea ice extent over the thirty-year satellite record. Click on the image to open the animated time series in a new window. The animated time series shows ice extent for each of the past thirty-one Septembers, 1979 to 2010. Ice extent this fall was the third-lowest in the satellite record.  —Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center/NASA E-O

• Click to view animation

Arctic sea ice extent on September 19, 2010.This image was made from sea ice observations collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) Instrument on NASA’s Aqua Source: NASA/EO. Click image to enlarge.

Arctic sea ice total area graph. Source: NASA/EO. Click image to enlarge.

See also: October post on Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis Web site (http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/)

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