Japan scientists warn Arctic ice melting fast

[cal04]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/T221484.htm

Arctic ice is melting fast and the area covered by ice sheets in ocean could shrink this summer to the smallest since 1978 when satellite observation first started, Japanese scientists warned in a report.

Ice sheets in the Arctic Ocean shrank to the smallest area on record in late summer in 2007, researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said in a report on the website


Total area of sea ice in Arctic Ocean smallest
since observations started
- Much faster pace of ice melting than forecasted -
Overview
The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC, led by President Yasuhiro Kato) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, led by President Keiji Tachikawa) cooperatively analyzed oceanic and atmospheric observation data and sea ice data acquired by satellites, and found that the sea ice area in the Arctic Ocean has been decreasing at a much faster pace than expected compared to the previous worst record in the summer of 2005. After satellite observations started in 1978, the observed area shrunk to its lowest level on August 15, 2007. Ice melting normally continues until mid September, thus further shrinkage of the sea ice area is expected. The observed phenomenon significantly exceeded the forecasted model submitted in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fourth Assessment Report, and the big difference tells us that the model may not precisely reflect the actual situation in the Arctic Ocean.

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2007/08/20070816_arctic_e.html

[jberryhill]

1. Gee, but will it screw up the whale harvest? /nt

[pscot]

2. Clever, those Japanese

They'll propably have their trawlers in there as soon as the ice goes out.