As polar sea ice coverage continues to decline due to increasing global temperatures, the overall albedo of the earth will also decline, sending the polar region into a positive feedback loop with undesirable consequences. As the albedo decreases, more of the sun's radiation will be absorbed by the earth and re-emitted as infrared radiation. This will leads to increased radiative forcing as greenhouse gases interact with the increased levels of infrared radiation. Overall this works to increase global temperatures, melting polar sea ice and continuing the cycle.
Question: What was the area of the Arctic sea ice cover during the 2007 September minimum?
Open up the Arctic Ice Cover Measuring Tool again. Using the slider along the right, move to the year 2007 and measure the area of the Arctic Sea Ice extent. Please take special care to be as accurate as possible.
The Arctic Sea Ice extent for September 2007 was actually measured at 4.3 million km2. Calculate the percent error of your measurement. How did it measure up?
Every set of data is recorded with a certain amount of error. Some techniques will yield better results and increase the researchers' confidence in their measurements. However, no scientific measurement is ever 100% accurate - there will always be some level of error. Limiting this error and knowing when the data is "good enough" is the task of all researchers, in every field in which data is used, including the traditional sciences and social sciences.