The latest data from NASA and the University of Colorado at
Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center show the
continuation of a decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice extent
in the Arctic, including new evidence for thinning ice as well.
The researchers, who have been tracking Arctic sea ice cover
with satellites since 1979, found that the winter of 2008-09 was
the fifth lowest maximum ice extent on record. The six lowest
maximum events in the satellite record have all occurred in the
past six years, according to CU-Boulder researcher Walt Meier of
NSIDC. The new measurements by CU-Boulder's NSIDC show the
maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09 reached on Feb. 28 was 5.85
million square miles, which is 278,000 square miles below the
average extent for 1979 to 2000, an area slightly larger than
the state of Texas, said Meier. In addition, a team of CU-
Boulder researchers led by Research Associate Charles Fowler of
the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, or CCAR, has
found that younger, thinner ice has r