NOAA (April 2, 2009) released new information regarding Arctic sea ice based on research at the University of Washington and the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean in Seattle-
-Arctic summers may well be ice-free in 30 years, an update to previously released projections that such an event would occur by the end of the century.
- Summer sea ice is expected to decline from its current 4.6 million square kilometers (about 1.8 million square miles) to about 1 million square kilometers (about 390,000 square miles)
-This represents a loss of an area two-fifths the size of the continental U.S.
