Melt-pools accelerate ice loss

New research has revealed that melt-water pooling on the Arctic ice is causing it to melt at a faster rate than computer models had previously predicted.Scientists have been struggling to understand why the northern ice sheet has been retreating at a faster rate than estimated by the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in 2007.The IPCC's computer models had simulated an average loss of 2.5% in sea ice extent per decade from 1953 to 2006. But in reality the Arctic ice sheet had declined at a rate of about 7.8% per decade.Arctic ice has retreated so much that in September 2007 it covered an all-time low area of 4.14m km sq, surpassing by 23% the previous all-time record set in September 2005.And during the summer of 2008, the north-west and north-east passages - the sea routes running along the Arctic coastlines of northern America and...

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