Her i starten af februar fortsat mindre is i Polarhavet end no...

Det er ihvertfald ikke signifikant under normalen for dette tiår nu.

Jeg glæder mig til at se polar-isudbredelsen engang i marts 2009, den bliver formentlig meget stor.

Kosmos skrev:

- nej, tag evt. et kig her!
(Brug link 'Total ice concentration image'(som dog kræver GoogleEarth installeret))

Viser det ikke bare status - ej i "forhold til X"

Short-term changes in winter ice extent

The temporary decline in ice extent from February 18 to 22 illustrates the sensitivity of Arctic sea ice extent to transient weather conditions. Conditions along southern boundary of the ice cover, such as in the Bering Sea, are typically just barely cold enough for ice to exist, and the ice there can quickly expand or retreat in response to changes in temperature and winds.

The decline in mid-February appears to have been caused by the combination of low pressure centered in the western Bering Sea and high pressure centered in the western Gulf of Alaska. This weather pattern caused warm, southerly winds between the low and high pressure cells, which pushed the ice edge to the north and promoted melt. Air temperatures in the region at the 925 millibar level (approximately 915 meters [3,000 feet] above the surface) were up to 8°C (14°F) above average.

On February 28, Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent for the year, at 15.14 million square kilometers. The maximum extent was 720,000 square kilometers below the 1979 to 2000 average of 15.86 million square kilometers, making it the fifth-lowest maximum extent in the satellite record.

In the beginning of March, ice extent began to decline, and it appeared that Arctic sea ice had reached its maximum extent. However, in the second week of March the ice edge began to expand again. Ice extent grew through much of the month of March, but it did not expand to the level seen on February 28.

The Arctic is treading on thinner ice than ever before. Researchers say that as spring begins, more than 90 percent of the sea ice in the Arctic is only 1 or 2 years old. That makes it thinner and more vulnerable than at anytime in the past three decades, according to researchers with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado.

"We're not set up well for summertime," ice data center scientist Walt Meier said Monday. "We're in a very precarious situation."