New paper finds modern sea ice coverage in Canadian Arctic near highest levels of past 150 years — Paper published in European Geosciences Union journal Biogeosciences
Study 'reconstructs sea ice coverage in Beaufort Sea over past 150 years & finds modern sea ice coverage [9.4 months per yr] is significantly greater than from ~ 1887-1945 [8.3 months per yr]. Paper shows modern sea ice coverage is amongst highest levels of entire 150 year record. The authors find reduced sea ice coverage from ~1887-1945 corresponded with reconstructed sea surface temps that were up to 3C warmer from 1885-1935 in comparison to avg modern temps'
According to paper, sea ice coverage was dominated by natural variation from PDO and AO’