"Ice extent" refers to the measurement of how much ice covers a particular area, such as a lake, sea, or the polar regions. It is the overall size or coverage of the ice in that specific location.
Full definition
The exact date and value of the minimum
sea ice extent in 2017 can only be determined in the coming weeks, after a significant increase.
The minimum sea
ice extent in 2010 fits into a long - term pattern of decline, especially in multi-year ice, which persists through the summer melt season and into another winter.
The lowest sea
ice extent on record occurred in 2007, followed closely by 2011, 2008, 2010, and 2009.
So that's what we can expect: big losses in sea ice area, and perhaps in sea
ice extent as well (with a lag).
The decline has been greatest during summer, for which the rate of decrease of
ice extent since 1979 has been approximately 12 percent per decade.
It appears that initially, the low pressure system slowed the drop in
ice extent by promoting ice divergence.
With these earlier data records, the ice concentrations would not be as reliable as the
total ice extent, which is why most folks only show the extent.
An area of ocean that extends from the permanent ice zone to the boundary where
winter ice extent is at a maximum.
Added to this is the concern that summer sea
ice extent reached a minimum in 2007 and has actually been increasing since then.
Further, it only took one month of persistent wind conditions to slow the rate of sea ice loss, resulting in an increase in 2009 sea
ice extent compared to 2007 and 2008.
That marks the second straight year that the winter maximum
ice extent set a record low.
While ice extent is entertaining, the mass of ice would be more appropriate for energy transfer calculations.
The sea
ice extent measure is broader, including areas of ocean where ice covers 15 % of the surface area.
And scientists can sample ice cores, permafrost records, and tree rings to make some assumptions about the sea
ice extent going back 1,500 years.
Even if the total albedo remained the same (highly unlikely) they are allowing heat to be absorbed north of the
southern ice extent.
This suggests that the recent decline in sea
ice extent represents a significant change in conditions from 1981 to 2010 time period.
However, scientists have used historical records of sea ice conditions to estimate sea
ice extent before 1979.
This work concerns only sea
ice extent without considerations of the age, thickness, and total volume of sea ice.
Raw model sea ice concentration data was processed using a simple linear regression model and satellite
derived ice extent to produce bias corrected predictions.
Phrases with «ice extent»