Chilling Forecasts For Ice Meltdown Date

摘要

The un Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) thinks that seasonal disappearance of the Arctic Ocean's sea ice will occur between 2050-2100. This is based on the best figures for the rate of the shrinking surface area and the IPCC's long-range global climate forecasts. As if this weren't scary enough, a super-computer model developed by the US Navy's Department of Oceanography puts the meltdown date at within five years. Their calculations are based on the ice thickness estimates, as compared with surface area. As Pen Hadow, director and head of surveying of the Catlin Arctic Survey, says, the accuracy of the models are merely a function of the quality of the data relied on. The data returned by the Catlin Arctic Survey will "allow for the re-evaluation of satellite and submarine digitised observations".