The normally thick and solid ice in some areas have now been split into several smaller parts and quickly melts as soon as it encounters warm waters. In that same year, Al Gore reiterated the claim: “Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years”.

This year, the minimum extent was recorded four days earlier than during the 1981 to 2010 average, but came in behind 2012 (lowest), 2007 (second lowest), and 2011 (third lowest). This is unusual for the Beaufort Sea, where multi-year ice used to remain in relative abundance through each melt season.

“We don’t need any more satellite images of shrinking sea ice to tell us that urgent action is needed to protect the far north. It’s time for governments, business and people the world over to respond and the most obvious place to start is by calling a halt to Shell’s reckless search for Arctic oil”.

Meier added, “The ice cover becomes less and less resilient, and it doesn’t take as much to melt it as it used to”.

After recording the lowest sea ice maximum in February, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has recorded the fourth lowest summer sea ice minimum on record.

Climate changes have led to a decline in the Arctic sea ice since the 1970s, and thinning is accelerating, according to a recent research.

The reading is about 240,000 square miles lower than last year’s low point and around 400,000 square miles above the all-time low of 1.3 million square miles set in 2012. The 2015 minimum appears to have been reached, but there is still a likelihood that variation in winds or late-season melt could minimize the Arctic extent much more in near future. While there may be recoveries during some years, it’s expected to go down again since the surface temperature in the region continues to increase. Faster than normal ice loss rates continued through August, a transition month when ice loss typically begins to slow.

This year’s minimum sea-ice extent in the Arctic was the fourth lowest since satellite observations began, NASA announced yesterday (Sept 15). According to the report, El Nino causes higher sea level pressure, warmer air temperatures and warmer SST’s in West Antarctica that can reduce the distribution of sea ice in that region. NASA says an August storm was partially responsible for the low amount of ice. “This heat is likely playing a substantial role in the melting of the ice that we can see all around us, growing thinner every day, and our job now is to distinguish summer melting from longer-term change”. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records.