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SCIENCEWednesday 16 September
Feds: Arctic sea ice
levels shrink to
4th lowest level
In this Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015 image made from video provided by NASA, astronauts Scott Kelly, SETH BORENSTEIN
left, and Kjell Lindgren, aboard the International Space Station, speak to actors from the movie AP Science Writer
“The Martian.” WASHINGTON (AP) — Summer Arctic sea ice shrank
to its fourth lowest level on record this month, dispel-
Associated Press ling faint hopes of a recovery, U.S. scientists said.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center announced
NASA astronaut hits halfway Tuesday that the Arctic hit its summer minimum last
point of yearlong spaceflight week with 1.7 million square miles (4.4 million sq. kilo-
meters) of sea ice, down 240,000 square miles (621.6
MARCIA DUNN single spaceflight. The Rus- side like on a spacewalk, million sq. kilometers) from 2014.
AP Aerospace Writer sians, on the other hand, but ‘put my feet in the “The ice is decreasing over time, which you would
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. still will hold the world re- grass and feel the wind on expect because the Arctic is warming,” data center
(AP) — Space station as- cord of 14 continuous my face’ kind of outside.” scientist Julienne Stroeve said.
tronaut Scott Kelly is half- months in space, set in the What’s the first thing he Summer minimum sea ice has shrunk since satellites
way home. mid-1990s. wants to eat when he gets started measuring in 1979. It reached a peak of 2.91
Kelly marked the midway To mark the occasion, Kelly back? million square miles (7.5 million sq. kilometers) in 1980
point of his yearlong space took time out to chat with “Probably a salad,” Kelly and hit an all-time low of 1.3 million square miles (3.3
mission Tuesday. He’s shar- two cast members from replied. million sq. kilometers) in 2012. It went back up to 1.95
ing the voyage with Rus- the upcoming movie, “The On the plus side, the square miles (5 million sq. kilometers)in 2013 and hov-
sian cosmonaut Mikhail Martian.” The actors spent 51-year-old former fighter ered near there in 2014.
Kornienko; the two experi- the day touring Johnson and test pilot said despite Variations in weather mean sea ice levels drift a bit
enced fliers arrived at the Space Center in Houston. all the work, he’s man- year to year, but Stroeve said there’s a long term
International Space Sta- He also received “Happy aged to develop “a pret- trend that is best seen when looking at averages of
tion in March and won’t Half Day” greetings from ty mean flip” in weight- five years or more.
return to Earth until next his girlfriend, a public af- lessness over the past six The five years between 1979 and 1983 averaged 2.76
March. fairs employee at Johnson. months. His experiments million square miles (7.15 million sq. kilometers) dur-
“It’s a big milestone,” Kelly Kelly told the actors — Se- include comparisons with ing the summer minimum. The last five years average
said, “but I’m not going to bastian Stan and Macken- his Earth-bound identical 1.72 million square miles (4.45 million sq. kilometers), a
start counting days down zie Davis — that if he could twin, Mark Kelly, a former decrease of 38 percent.
yet. I think I’m going to wait do or have anything, he’d astronaut. That means there’s no recovery in Arctic sea ice, de-
until March, then I’m going choose “the ability to Kelly and American col- spite claims of some climate change doubters, said
to allow myself to count leave here.” league Kjell Lindgren said Stroeve and Pennsylvania State University climate sci-
how many days I have re- “Something people don’t they’re looking forward entist Michael Mann, who wasn’t part of the govern-
maining. I’m counting up recognize is that being on to seeing “The Martian” ment measurement team.
for the time being.” the space station is proba- aboard their orbiting The world overall so far this year is easily the hottest it
For the record, Kelly bly a lot like being in some home, as soon as it makes has been in more than a century of record keeping,
passed the 171-day mark kind of confinement — like its debut Oct. 2. The main according to NASA and the National Oceanic and
Tuesday, with 171 more isolation,” he said. “Not astronaut character is Atmospheric Administration. However, the El Nino that
days to go. having the ability to leave played by Matt Damon, has been helping push temperatures even warmer
At the end, it will be just a is ... an all-present feeling. who briefly chatted by isn’t having as much an effect up north, which is far-
tad short of a full year, but Although I’m not claustro- phone with the two U.S. as- ther away from the tropical Pacific Ocean, Stroeve
it will be enough to easily phobic at all, it would be tronauts last month. Both said. It has been hot, but not near record breaking in
break NASA’s current re- nice to get outside. And spacemen are big fans of the Arctic this summer.
cord of seven months for a I’m not talking about out- the novel by Andy Weir.q With human-caused warming continuing, computer
simulations show on average that around the year
2040, sea ice will disappear from the Arctic during
some summers, Stroeve said.
“We remain on a trajectory that is actually ahead of
model predictions,” Mann said. “Arctic sea ice is one
of several aspects of climate change that his hap-
pening even faster than originally predicted.”
Sea ice in Antarctica, which had been at record high
levels in recent years, are about average, Stroeve
said.q
