NASA announced the results of measurements made by a satellite over the Arctic, between the winter 2004 and the winter 2008. This study shows that the thickness of the ice has declined dramatically and confirms the impact of global warming on the ice caps.

Since winter 2004, the ice caps have lost almost 18 centimeters in thickness each year in the Arctic, according to the measurements taken by the ICEsat satellite and published by the Newspaper off Geophysical Research-Oceans.

The volume of the permanent ices known as multi-year is lower than that of ice that are reforming after the summer, which never happened. In 2003, the volume of Arctic ice was composed of 62% of multi-year ice and 38% of first year ice. In 2008, 68% of the ice was first year and 32% multi-year.

“Even during the years when the extent of ice of the ocean remains stable or extends slightly, the thickness and the volume of the icecap continue to decrease” says Ron Kwok, a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA and co-author of the study.

In just 4 years, 1.54 million square kilometers of the ice sheet had melted, which is nearly three times the size of France.

The author’s report stresses on this significant melting is due to global warming which is the reason for the changes in the movement of ice on the surface of the ocean.

The Shrinking Arctic Ice Cap