Arctic thaw opens up passage to the Pole

London: The Arctic ice cover has melted so much that a ship could have sailed unhindered from northern Europe to the North Pole itself a few weeks ago, according to images released this week by scientists.

Satellite images acquired from August 23-25 have shown for the first time dramatic openings larger than the size of the British Isles in the Arctic's year-round sea ice pack north of Svalbard, and extending into the Russian Arctic all the way to the North Pole.

The images were acquired by instruments aboard Envisat and EOS Aqua, two satellites operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). "This situation is unlike anything observed in previous record low-ice seasons,'' said Mark Drinkwater, of ESA's Oceans/Ice Unit.

"It is highly imaginable that a ship could have passed from Spitzbergen or Northern Siberia through what is normally pack ice to reach the North Pole without difficulty.''

Drinkwater said: "If this anomaly continues, the Northeast Passage, or 'Northern Sea Route' between Europe and Asia will be open over longer intervals, and it is conceivable we might see attempts at sailing around the world directly across the summer Arctic Ocean within 10 to 20 years.''

Regular satellite monitoring over the past 25 years shows that the northern polar ice cover has shrunk and thinned as global temperatures have risen. But this year's images are unprecedented, and fierce storms that fragmented and scattered already thin pack ice may be to blame, the scientists believe.

Satellites have witnessed reductions in the minimum ice extent the lowest amount of ice recorded in the area annually at the end of summer from around 8 million square kilometres in the early 1980s to less than 5.5 million square kilometres in 2005, changes widely viewed as a consequence of greenhouse warming.