The final results are in, and the Arctic ice cover reached its sixth-lowest extent this year in the era of satellite recordkeeping, dating to 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
While 2014 nudged last year to No. 7 on the list, the overall seasonal loss between the high and low points – March 21 and Sept. 17 – was the least since 2006, the center said.
The total areal coverage, 1.94 million square miles, was significantly higher than the 2012 nadir – 1.32 million square miles – but the center said that overall ice is vanishing at the rate of 13.3 percent per decade.
"This year was nothing surprising. Overall we're continuing the long-term decreasing trend," Walt Meier, research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, was quoted as saying in the center's news release.
By contrast, at the other end of the world the snow-and-ice cover reached a record level at the Antarctic. As of Sept. 22, it stood at 7.76 million square miles, or about 8 percent above the 30-year average.
The snow-and-ice center said the reasons for the growth were uncertain. Said Ted Scambos, the center's lead scientist: "What we're learning is, we have more to learn."
