{"id":445,"date":"2008-03-27T15:04:23","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T20:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/"},"modified":"2008-04-22T11:22:56","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T16:22:56","slug":"arctic_ice_thin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/","title":{"rendered":"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src='https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg' alt='James Wang' hspace=\"8\" align=\"left\" class=\"blogAuthorPic\" \/><i>This post is by <a href=\"http:\/\/environmentaldefense.org\/page.cfm?tagID=985\">James Wang, Ph.D.<\/a>, a climate scientist at Environmental Defense Fund.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Last summer we saw <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/10\/04\/arctic_ice_shrinking\/\">record-shattering shrinkage of Arctic sea ice<\/a> caused, in part, by human-induced global warming. Last week I listened in on a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/topics\/earth\/features\/seaice_conditions_main.html\">NASA briefing on polar sea ice<\/a>, and this year looks no better.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/02\/27\/cold_january\/\">This winter was relatively cold due to a strong La Ni\u00f1a<\/a>, so the Arctic saw a modest increase in overall sea ice (slightly above the record low of 2005-2006, but still below the long-term average). However, <b>the older, thicker ice that lasts through the summer has declined sharply<\/b>, and<b> <\/b>this is very worrying.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>There are <b>two kinds of sea ice<\/b>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Perennial or multiyear<\/b> &#8211; ice that has survived at least one summer melt season.<\/li>\n<li><b>Seasonal or first-year <\/b>&#8211; ice that typically forms each winter and disappears the following summer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Seasonal ice is thinner than perennial &#8211; at most four feet thick versus 15 feet for perennial ice &#8211; so it breaks up and melts more easily.<\/p>\n<p><b>Most of the ice cover in the Arctic this year is seasonal.<\/b> Scientist Walt Meier described this winter&#8217;s ice as &quot;a fa\u00e7ade&quot; like buildings in a movie set that look solid but are actually empty shells.<\/p>\n<p>Perennial ice used to cover 50 to 60 percent of the Arctic. This year it covers less than 30 percent. Very old ice (existing for 6+ years) has shrunk from over 20 percent in the late 1980s to just 6 percent this winter.<\/p>\n<p>Vast regions that used to be covered by multiyear ice are now covered by first-year ice (shown in red below):<\/p>\n<p><img src='https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/arctic_ice_age_500.jpg' alt='Age of Arctic Ice' \/><br \/>\n<i><font size=\"1\">Left: February distribution of Arctic ice by age, 1985-2000 average. Right: February 2008 distribution of Arctic ice by age. Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/topics\/earth\/features\/seaice_conditions_feature.html\">National Snow and Ice Data Centre<\/a>.<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n<p>The amount of perennial sea ice in the Arctic is at a record low. One contributing factor is last summer&#8217;s record melt season. Some of the remaining perennial ice was pushed out of the Arctic by ocean currents, resulting in further loss.<\/p>\n<p>The high proportion of seasonal ice means the ice pack is especially vulnerable to melting during the summer season &#8211; very bad news for <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/09\/14\/grim-outlook-for-polar-bears\/\">polar bears<\/a> and traditional hunting societies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is by James Wang, Ph.D., a climate scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. Last summer we saw record-shattering shrinkage of Arctic sea ice caused, in part, by human-induced global warming. Last week I listened in on a NASA briefing on polar sea ice, and this year looks no better. This winter was relatively cold &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arctic-antarctic"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot; - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot; - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is by James Wang, Ph.D., a climate scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. Last summer we saw record-shattering shrinkage of Arctic sea ice caused, in part, by human-induced global warming. Last week I listened in on a NASA briefing on polar sea ice, and this year looks no better. This winter was relatively cold ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-27T20:04:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-04-22T16:22:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Wang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Wang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James Wang\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f38433f11d066f73eecd9347ef5ff5a3\"},\"headline\":\"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot;\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-27T20:04:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-04-22T16:22:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":371,\"commentCount\":6,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/james_wang.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arctic &amp; Antarctic\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot; - Climate 411\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/james_wang.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-27T20:04:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-04-22T16:22:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f38433f11d066f73eecd9347ef5ff5a3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/james_wang.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/7\\\/files\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/james_wang.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/2008\\\/03\\\/27\\\/arctic_ice_thin\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/\",\"name\":\"Climate 411\",\"description\":\"Blogging the science and policy of global warming\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f38433f11d066f73eecd9347ef5ff5a3\",\"name\":\"James Wang\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/bac98415e9c06f185f4cb60754d82d498c204e2918f8d43912c0a034ae57ba50?s=96&d=mm&r=g4d18299e79bcedd6bb3a81941c16d9e1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/bac98415e9c06f185f4cb60754d82d498c204e2918f8d43912c0a034ae57ba50?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/bac98415e9c06f185f4cb60754d82d498c204e2918f8d43912c0a034ae57ba50?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Wang\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/environmentaldefense.org\\\/page.cfm?tagID=985\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/climate411\\\/author\\\/jwang\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot; - Climate 411","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot; - Climate 411","og_description":"This post is by James Wang, Ph.D., a climate scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. Last summer we saw record-shattering shrinkage of Arctic sea ice caused, in part, by human-induced global warming. Last week I listened in on a NASA briefing on polar sea ice, and this year looks no better. This winter was relatively cold ...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/","og_site_name":"Climate 411","article_published_time":"2008-03-27T20:04:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2008-04-22T16:22:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"James Wang","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James Wang","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/"},"author":{"name":"James Wang","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#\/schema\/person\/f38433f11d066f73eecd9347ef5ff5a3"},"headline":"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot;","datePublished":"2008-03-27T20:04:23+00:00","dateModified":"2008-04-22T16:22:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/"},"wordCount":371,"commentCount":6,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg","articleSection":["Arctic &amp; Antarctic"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/","name":"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot; - Climate 411","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg","datePublished":"2008-03-27T20:04:23+00:00","dateModified":"2008-04-22T16:22:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#\/schema\/person\/f38433f11d066f73eecd9347ef5ff5a3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/7\/files\/2008\/03\/james_wang.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2008\/03\/27\/arctic_ice_thin\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Arctic Sea Ice a Thin &quot;Fa\u00e7ade&quot;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/","name":"Climate 411","description":"Blogging the science and policy of global warming","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/#\/schema\/person\/f38433f11d066f73eecd9347ef5ff5a3","name":"James Wang","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bac98415e9c06f185f4cb60754d82d498c204e2918f8d43912c0a034ae57ba50?s=96&d=mm&r=g4d18299e79bcedd6bb3a81941c16d9e1","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bac98415e9c06f185f4cb60754d82d498c204e2918f8d43912c0a034ae57ba50?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bac98415e9c06f185f4cb60754d82d498c204e2918f8d43912c0a034ae57ba50?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"James Wang"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/environmentaldefense.org\/page.cfm?tagID=985"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/author\/jwang\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}