Since it is a subject dear to my heart, I thought you’d like to know that today is International Polar Day, part of the IPY.
The IPY website now has a load of snazzy links to lots of useful stuff about sea ice, here.
Update on current sea-ice extent: the latest NSIDC press release is here. It looks as if the past week has seen the minimum, though as the release points out, it’ll be a couple of weeks before this can be confirmed. On scale of losses this year, the NSIDC says that the anomaly compared to the previous lowest figure is the size of Texas and California combined, or five UKs.
For the full horror story, the animation at the bottom, of minima from 1979-present, is the eye-opener.
Old man in a cave 
2 comments
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September 27, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Roger
What about Sth Pole ice? Isn’t near maximum levels?
September 27, 2007 at 5:31 pm
fergusbrown
Hi Roger,
Yes, the anomaly in the Antarctic has been high this year, at times around a million km2 more than average. But the Antarctic has been expected to respond differently to climate change, compared to the Arctic, for some years now. Basically, one tells us something about climate impacts, the other (at the moment) is not doing so; hence the emphasis on the Arctic.
This does not mean that there are no impacts in the Antarctic, just that the mean sea-ice extent has not yet been effected by changes in the global climate.