Despite dire predictions that the North Pole would be ice-free in the near future, Arctic Sea ice levels have been more stable than scientists predicted. So far this winter, Arctic Sea ice levels are above where they were at the same time last winter and are well within the the standard deviation of the 1981 to 2010 variation, according to daily sea ice data.
Europe’s CryoSat-2 satellite found that sea-ice volumes for the fall of 2014 were above the average extent for the last five years. Sea-ice levels were up sharply from 2011 and 2012, according to the satellite– only slightly lower than 2013 levels.
In 2013, CryoSat-2 found that Arctic sea ice levels increased 50 percent at the end of the region’s melting season. Arctic sea-ice coverage reached 2,100 cubic miles by that time, up from 1,400 cubic miles during the same time in 2012.
“The Antarctic is actually growing and all the evidence in the last few months suggests many assumptions about the poles were wrong,” Dr. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, told the U.K. Express.
