Polar sea ice extent remains above the long-term average, NASA/NOAA satellite instruments report. Fueled by record Antarctic sea ice extent, polar sea ice this month continues a year-long trend of primarily above-average extent.
Satellite instruments have been measuring Arctic and Antarctic sea ice since 1979. Global warming alarmists frequently site declining Arctic sea ice as proof of a global warming crisis, but they consistently decline to mention growing Antarctic sea ice that offsets the Arctic trend.
Viewed together, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent shows little if any trend during the past 34 years. During the latter half of the past decade, global sea ice frequently fell to between 5 and 10 percent below the sea ice extent measured in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but polar ice extent in 2013 has surpassed the long-term average.
A graph of satellite-measured polar sea ice extent appears here, presented by the University of Illinois.
