Pacific Standard November-December 2013 Cover  Measuring the
Melting Arctic Sea Ice  A new satellite will measure to the
centimeter just how far gone, or going, the Arctic ice cap
really is.  CryoSat-2 will devote a large part of its mission to
helping climate researchers understand the how and why of Arctic
climate change. (European Space Agency) 0 Flares 0 Flares ×
While the world's eyes focus on the catastrophe in the Gulf,
climatologists are tracking a decades-old cataclysm at the top
of the world — dwindling Arctic sea ice.  This year is projected
to surpass 2007's summer sea ice minimum, when sailboats were
seen navigating their way through large cracks in polar ice
floes.  "Where Arctic ice used to be 3- to 5-meters thick in
most places, now it's tough to find ice that's over 3-meters
thick," explained Ignatius Rigor, a climatologist at the
University of Washington in Seattle. "Most of the Arctic is
covered by 2-year-old ice. It used to be covered by ice that was
30 years old."  A decade of warmer tha