MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Shrinking Artic ice makes Northwest Passage “fully navigable”

A dream come true: Sailing from the Pacific to Atlantic through Canada

The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening up the Northwest Passage – a long-sought short cut between Europe and Asia that has been historically impassable, the European Space Agency.

"We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around three million square kilometers, which is about one million square kilometers less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006" said Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre. "There has been a reduction of the ice covers over the last 10 years of about 100 000 sq. km. per year on average, so a drop of one million sq. km. in just one year is extreme" underlined the scientist. The most direct route of the Northwest Passage across northern Canada is "fully navigable", while the so-called Northeast Passage along the Siberian coast "remains only partially blocked" ESA said in a press release. The previous record low was in 2005 when the Arctic area covered by sea ice was four million sq. km. Even then, the most direct Northwest Passage did not become fully open, said ESA. "The strong reduction in just one year certainly raises flags that the ice (in summer) may disappear much sooner than expected and that we urgently need to understand better the processes involved." Arctic sea ice naturally extends its surface coverage each northern winter and recedes each northern summer, but the rate of overall loss since 1978 when satellite records began has accelerated. ESA points out that Polar Regions are very sensitive indicators of climate change. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed these regions are highly vulnerable to rising temperatures and predicted the Arctic would be virtually ice free by the summer of 2070. Still other scientists predict it could become ice free as early as 2040 due to rising temperatures and sea ice decline. "Because sea ice has a bright surface, the majority of solar energy that hits it is reflected back into space. When sea ice melts, the dark-colored ocean surface is exposed. Solar energy is then absorbed rather than reflected, so the oceans get warmer and temperatures rise, making it difficult for new ice to form" The Arctic is one of Earth's most inaccessible areas, so obtaining measurements of sea ice was difficult before the advent of satellites. For more than 20 years, ESA has been providing satellite data to the cryosphere communities. Currently, ESA is contributing to the International Polar Year (IPY) – a large worldwide science programme focused on the Arctic and Antarctic.