In September 2007 sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere plummeted to a new record low. Average sea ice extent in the Arctic for the month of September stood at 4.28 million square kilometers shattering the previously recorded absolute minimum of 5.32 million square kilometers that occurred on September 20-21, 2005.

Sea ice extent is a clear indicator of rapid, ongoing changes in Arctic climate, environment and societies. The rapidity and clarity with which this record has been reported by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, and the existence of a high quality record from 1979 to the present, stands tribute to the value of sustained monitoring of the Arctic environment. However, understanding and prediction of such changes, and thus any attempts at adaptation and mitigation in the region, critically depend on the existence of a sustained and integrated observations of the system as a whole including ocean, ice, atmosphere, land and human dimensions. As the ice cover of the Arctic erodes, areas which formerly were inaccessible are now becoming valuable economic and strategic resources. The UN should play a key role in ensuring that recent territorial disputes related to these events do not compromise universal access to and benefit from Arctic data and ocean observations. UNESCO and its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) are working with national and international partners to build and sustain an Arctic Observing Network as described in a recent US National Research Council report co-authored by UNESCO scientists and being implemented as a contribution to the UNESCO/IOC sponsored Global Ocean Observing System during the International Polar Year 2007-2008 . Unfortunately, member states failed to achieve consensus on building an Arctic Regional Alliance for ocean observations at their eighth session of the IOC-WMO-UNEP Intergovernmental Committee for the Global Ocean Observing System held at UNESCO headquarters in June 2007 but they have agreed to coordinate and promote actions towards its establishment in the near future. For further information on UNESCO and IOC activities related to global and Arctic monitoring or the International Polar Year contact Keith Alverson ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ).

Figure 1: Summer ice extent timeseries derived from satellite microwave measurements for climatological mean (1979-2000), the previous record low set in 2005, and the year to date data available from 2007. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder Colorado.

Figure 2: Summer sea ice extent map from satellite microwave measurements for September 2007 as compared to the previous record low set in September 2005. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder Colorado.