During summer 2007, Arctic sea ice plummeted to the lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979. The average sea ice area for September was 4.28 million square kilometers (1.65 million square miles), the lowest September on record. At the end of the 2007 melt season, sea ice area was 39 percent less than the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. Some estimates based on ship and aircraft records acquired prior to the satellite era suggest that sea ice may have retreated by as much as 50 percent since the 1950s.
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Article forwarded by Magali Philip