Arctic ice at a new all-time low

We continue to receive news alerting us to climate change and rising sea levels. The ice sheet covering the Arctic Ocean reached its maximum extent for the year on March 24, and for the second year in a row, the maximum annual ice extent has reached its record low – since satellite observations began in 1979. This year 2016, as reported by the National Snow & Data Center (NSIDC) and NASA, the layer has reached 14.52 million km2, a figure lower than the 14.54 million km2 that had already set a negative record in 2015.

The extent of ice in the Arctic Ocean is a worrying new consequence of high temperatures that we have lived during the last winter in the northern hemisphere, although there is still what will be the minimum annual extension that will be reached in summer. A fact that is usually even more relevant for global temperature, since the ice sheet plays the role of reflecting sunlight that is otherwise absorbed by the ocean.