Hudson Bay Sea Ice Melting Season One Month Longer Than In 1979

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American researchers suggest the melting season for Arctic sea ice is growing faster across much of the Canadian Arctic than anywhere else in the world.

A recently published article outlines how they used satellite microwave data to measure when sea ice begins to melt in the spring and when it starts refreezing in the fall. The researchers were able to look with 99 per cent accuracy as far back as 1979 and examine the entire circumpolar globe, the first time scientists have been able to do so.

They found that, on average, sea ice has started melting 2.5 days earlier every decade and begun to refreeze 3.7 days later. That means the average melt season is just under 20 days longer than it was 30 years ago. "All areas in the Arctic show a trend toward earlier melt onset and also a trend toward later freeze-up," says the paper, published in the latest Journal of Geophysical Research.

However, the melt period for ice in several areas of the Canadian Arctic is growing even faster. In Baffin Bay, at the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage, it is increasing about 20 per cent faster than the global average. And in the Beaufort Sea and Hudson Bay, the melt period is now a full month longer than it was in 1979. In fact, the melting season for Hudson Bay ice is increasing at one of the fastest paces in the world, probably because it's one of the most southerly ice packs. The only Canadian melt period increasing at the global average was found in ice tucked in between the High Arctic islands.

EDIT

http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=178090