Arctic summer sea ice at second lowest level on record

Summer sea ice in the Arctic shrank in 2020 to the second smallest area on record, after 2012, according to satellite observations announced Monday by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the United States.

Pack ice is the ice that forms on water.

Every year, part of it melts in summer and reform in winter, normally, but with global warming, it is melting more and more in summer, and its winter area is also shrinking.

"We are heading towards an Arctic Ocean without seasonal ice"

Satellites have been observing these areas very precisely since 1979, and the downward trend is clear.

This year, the minimum for summer sea ice was reached on September 15, with 3.74 million square kilometers, according to the center, which announcements at the end of each winter and each summer refer to.

"It has been a crazy year in the north, with sea ice almost at the lowest level ever, heatwaves (...) in Siberia and huge forest fires," said Mark Serreze, its director.

"We are heading towards an Arctic Ocean without seasonal ice," he lamented.

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Melting pack ice does not directly contribute to rising sea levels, since the ice is already on the water.

But it contributes indirectly, because the less ice there is, the less solar radiation is reflected and the more it is absorbed by the oceans, which warms them.