Scientists have long warned that global warming is melting ice in the Arctic at an alarming rate. New images from far above the earth are providing some crucial evidence to back-up that claim.

The Northwest Passage historical maritime, a long sought-after short cut between Europe and Asia, has long been blocked by sea ice, but is now open, according to the European Space Agency. The reason, according to the ESA, record shrinkage of Arctic sea ice.

The proof is in satellite images the ESA revealed this week. The images were taken by a radar on board the ESA’s Envisat satellite. What they show, says the ESA, is that the area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago. That amounts to a drop of more than 386-thousand square miles in the last year alone. Arctic sea ice naturally extends its surface coverage each northern winter and recedes each northern summer, the ESA said.

“We have seen the ice-covered area drop to just around three million square kilometres (1.158 million square miles), which is about one million square kilometres (386,000 sq. miles) less than the previous minima of 2005 and 2006,” said Leif Toudal Pedersen of the Danish National Space Centre.

“There has been a reduction of the ice cover over the last 10 years of about 100,000 sq. km. (38,600 sq. miles) per year on average, so a drop of one million sq. km. (386,000 sq. miles) in just one year is extreme,” Pedersen says, “the strong 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.”

The most direct route of the Northwest Passage across northern Canada is shown fully navigable, while the Northeast Passage along the Siberian coast remains only partially blocked. To date, the Northwest Passage has been predicted to remain closed even during reduced ice cover by multi-year ice pack – sea ice that survives one or more summers. However, according to Pedersen, this year’s extreme event has shown the passage may well open sooner than expected.

The Polar Regions are very sensitive indicators of climate change. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showed these regions are highly vulnerable to rising temperatures and predicted the Arctic would be virtually ice free by the summer of 2070. Still other scientists predict it could become ice free as early as 2040 due to rising temperatures and sea ice decline.

Photo Credit: (ESA) Envisat ASAR image of the McClure Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, acquired on 31 August 2007. The McClure Strait is the most direct route of the Northwest Passage and has been fully open since early August 2007.