Arctic sea ice summer minimum in 2018 is sixth lowest on record

Oct 1, 2018

A glacier is seen near Ny-Aalesund in Norway's high Arctic, May 28, 2013. Ny-Aalesund, the world's northernmost permanent settlement, is home to about 40 people in the winters and over 100 scientists during its brief summer. Picture taken May 28, 2013. To match NORWAY-ARCTIC/NYAALESUND REUTERS/Balazs Koranyi (NORWAY - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY) - GM1E95U1Q9D01

While this year isn’t record-breaking, it is still cause for concern. Image: REUTERS/Balazs Koranyi

Robert McSweeney

Science Editor, Carbon Brief

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Arctic sea ice extent up to 23 September 2018, along with daily ice extent data for four previous years and the record low year (2012). The 1981-2010 median is in dark grey, and the grey areas around the median line show the interquartile and interdecile ranges. Image: NSIDC

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Arctic sea ice extent on 23 September 2018. The orange line shows the 1981-2010 average extent for that day.

Image: NSIDC

Current simulated (PIOMAS; Zhang and Rothrock, 2003) sea ice thickness (left) and anomalies relative to a 1981-2010 baseline (right) for August 2018.

Image: Zack Labe

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