However, the vast area and the extreme weather conditions make it difficult to monitor the snow during Arctic winter. In situ measurements of snow depth on sea ice are rare and mostly obtained in spri
In February, the sea-ice cover in the Arctic remained below the double standard deviation from the long-term average (see Figure 1) and followed a similar progression as in the years 2007 and 2018. In
The dramatic loss of ice in the Arctic is influencing sea-ice transport across the Arctic Ocean. As experts from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research report in
The thickness of sea ice determines the heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere as well as the resistance against the deforming forces of wind and ocean currents. Already a thin layer of se
The rapid rate of ice loss observed in early July continued in the third week of the month, before dropping again rapidly (Fig. 4). The mean sea-ice extent in July 2020 was 6.85 million km 2 – the low
Since the beginning of continuous satellite observation in 1979, the daily ice cover in the Arctic and Arctic has been measured extensively, offering a record of the climatic changes in the two polar
Since the start of continuous satellite monitoring in 1979, the summertime sea-ice extent in September has been on the decline, showing a loss of nearly 14% per decade, about 50% over the whole time p
Polar bears are native to the Arctic and are more closely associated with the region than any other animal. Though they are the largest land-based predators in the Arctic, they spend the majority of t
At 4.0 million km², the sea-ice extent at mid-month was roughly 530,000 km² above the record low in 2012, and ca. 440,000 km² below the figure for the same month in 2019, the year with the third-lowes
But this expedition won’t proceed entirely as planned, either – like so many things in the on-going coronavirus pandemic. In mid-December, the research ship Polarstern, with the new overwintering team
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