The amount of ice in the Arctic is widely considered a good indicator of the planet’s health. But due to climate change, the Arctic sea ice minimum is declining at an alarming rate of nearly 13 percent per decade. The minimum reaches its lowest point in September when the ice extent covers a surface area smaller than that of Europe.
Towards the end of winter, about six million square miles (15 million square km) of ice cover the Arctic.
By the end of summer, however, this drops to about 2.3 million sqaure miles (six million square km).
These are worrying figures, according to Dr Tomasz Wawrzyniak of the Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences.
He said: “In recent years, these values have significantly decreased and in the record year of 2012, the sea ice extent was only 3.34 million square km.
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“In turn, in recent years the extent of sea ice in the winter exceeds slightly more than 14 million square km.”
And the results of the ice loss are likely to be catastrophic.
Driven by emissions of greenhouse gases and global warming, temperatures around the planet are on the rise.
Dr Wawrzyniak believes these will contribute to more severe and more frequent extreme weather, such as coastal flooding and droughts.
As a result, air temperatures begin to rise and affect the circulation of ocean and sea currents.
Rising air temperatures, in turn, have a knock-on effect on atmospheric pressure, pushing warm winds from the south into Europe.
Unfortunately, scientists have recently warned the Arctic could become ice-free by the year 2035.
Dr Wawrzyniak said: “Currently, the ice loss is about 13 percent per decade, compared to the reference period.
“More open surface means more heat in the ocean and worse conditions for sea ice to form.
“Climate projections do indeed point to the disappearance of sea ice in the coming decades, although a few years ago, according to sceptics, this was impossible.
“The actual disappearance of sea ice is even faster than previously predicted by climate models and, therefore, they are constantly being developed.”
Climate data shows the planet has been warming since 1998, with the most recent six years being the warmest since 1880.