Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks Less This Year

VOICE ONE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell the latest about sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. VOICE ONE: The warmest season in the Arctic Ocean could never be described as warm. Yet some sea ice in the Arctic melts each year during summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Then it freezes again in the winter. The total of sea ice is known as the sea ice extent. The ice is important because it helps keep the Arctic cold and reduces extremes in the Earth's climate. Experts say the Arctic sea ice extent is under threat. But there is some good news about the extent, at least for now. Scientists say a little more ice covered the Arctic in September than in September of two thousand eight. The scientists work for the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. September is the month when the sea ice extent is at its lowest. The scientists say the average Arctic sea ice extent last month was about five million square kilometers. This was more than one million square kilometers more than the record low for September. The record low was set in two thousand seven. VOICE TWO: Mike Steele is an ocean expert at the University of Washington in Seattle. He says sea surface temperatures in the Arctic were higher than normal last month. But skies were cloudy during the summer. That caused lower temperatures, which slowed loss of ice. Atmospheric conditions in August and September also helped to spread the ice. They kept the sea ice extent higher. Still, the National Snow and Ice Data Center says the most recent September measurement was the third lowest since nineteen seventy-nine. The center says September Arctic sea ice is decreasing at a rate of more than eleven percent every ten years. In the winter months, it is falling by about three percent every ten years. VOICE ONE: The center's director, Mark Serreze, says it is good to see what he calls, a little recovery. But he says there is no reason to think that the ice levels will return to the levels of thirty years ago. He warns that the Arctic Ocean could be free of ice during future Northern Hemisphere summers. The report also says the two thousand nine ice cover was thin. This means it might melt in future summers. The scientists say that ice formed less than one year earlier covered almost half of the extent. VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Mario Ritter and Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Source: Voice of America