GENEVA, Switzerland, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- European Space Agency satellites show sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level in 30 years.
Researchers say the ice melt may open the Northwest Passage, which has historically been impassable by boat.
"The reduction in just one year certainly raises flags that the ice (in summer) may disappear much sooner than expected and that we urgently need to understand better the processes involved," Leif Toudal Pedersen from the Danish National Space Center said Friday in a release.
Arctic sea ice naturally extends its surface coverage each northern winter and recedes each northern summer, but the rate of overall loss since 1978, when satellite records began, has accelerated.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted the Arctic would be virtually ice-free by summer 2070. Other scientists predict it could become ice-free as early as 2040 due to rising temperatures and sea ice decline, the agency said.
