Seung‐Ki Min, Xuebin Zhang, Francis W. Zwiers, Tom Agnew

Geophysical Research Letters

Published date November 5, 2008

Human influence on Arctic sea ice detectable from early 1990s onwards

  • States that human influence has previously been identified in the observed loss of Arctic sea ice, but this hypothesis has not yet been tested with a formal optimal detection approach
  • Compares observed and multi‐model simulated changes in Arctic sea ice extent during 1953–2006 using an optimal fingerprinting method
  • Finds that the anthropogenic signal first emerged in the early 1990s, indicating that human influence could have been detected even prior to the recent dramatic sea ice decline
  • Finds that the anthropogenic signal is also detectable for individual months from May to December, suggesting that human influence, strongest in late summer, now also extends into colder seasons