WASHINGTON - Critical ice in the Arctic Ocean melted to record low levels this sweltering summer, and that can make weather more extreme far away from the poles, scientists say.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Monday that the extent of Arctic sea ice shrank to 1.58 million square miles and is likely to melt more in the coming weeks. That breaks the old record of 1.61 million square miles set in 2007.
The North Pole region is an ocean that mostly is crusted at the top with ice. In the winter, the frozen saltwater surface usually extends about 6 million square miles; it shrinks in summer and grows back in the fall. Antarctica is land covered by ice and snow and then surrounded by sea ice.
Normally sea ice in the Arctic reaches its minimum in mid-September and then begins refreezing. But levels on Sunday shrank 27,000 square miles - about the size of West Virginia - below the old record.
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Figures are based on satellite records dating back to 1979.
Data center scientist Ted Scambos said the melt can be blamed mostly on global warming from man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.
This milestone is a "substantial step" to the day when there will be no significant summer sea ice in the Arctic, said NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati.
Scientists say Arctic sea ice helps moderate temperatures farther south in the winter and summer.
