Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low, by some estimates

Wind patterns are left in the ice pack that covers the Arctic Ocean north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska March 18, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

(Reuters) - The area of ice in the Arctic Ocean has thawed to a record low, surpassing the previous 2007 minimum in a sign of climate change transforming the region, according to some scientific estimates.

"We reached the minimum ice area today (Thursday). It has never been measured less than right now," Ola Johannessen, founding director of the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center in Norway, told Reuters.

"It is just below the 2007 minimum."

The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), widely viewed as the main authority on sea ice, has projected that the 2007 minimum extent is set to be breached next week. The summer thaw usually continues well into September.

For more, visit http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/23/us-climate-arctic-idUSBRE87M0OK20120823.