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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice Thinner, More Vulnerable


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Thick perennial sea ice (purple, green, orange, and yellow) used to fill much of the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, as shown by data from 1985 to 2000 (left).

Now the Arctic is dominated by thinner seasonal sea ice (red), new satellite images show.

The seasonal ice is much more vulnerable to melting and breaking up, experts say.

Images courtesy NSIDC, S. Drobot, University of Colorado, Boulder