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(reporter) Record breaking temperatures in 2016 have primed the Arctic for

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another summer low sea ice cover. NASA has

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some new images from this summers melt. Here to tell us about it is

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Dr. Walt Meier at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, thanks for joining us. (Meier) Thank You.

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(reporter) So globally its been the warmest year on record. What

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the latest images show us about the summer in the Arctic.

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(Meier) Globally its been the warmest year on record. It's also been a very warm

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spring and summer in the Arctic as well, and not surprisingly that means the

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ice starting melting earlier, melting faster and melting

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more than what we've seen in the past, so its been a very

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low ice sheet, we are opening a lot of open water, and its going to be one of the lowest

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ice year we have seen in our satellite record.

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(reporter) What is sea ice and

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why is it important to the Arctic and the Earth as a whole?

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(Meier) So sea ice is the ice that grows and melts with in the ocean and with in the

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Arctic ocean. So it doesn't raise sea level, however because its

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white, reflects a lot of the Sun's energy compared to the dark

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ocean. So the sea ice helps keep the Arctic cooler

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and thus helps keep the globe cooler. So the sea ice kind of acts like the Earth's

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refrigerator. As we lose the ice cover replace it with the ocean that is

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absorbing the Sun's energy, its like opening the refrigerator doors.

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So we are losing the efficiency of the cooling ability of the arctic.

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(reporter) Do you ever think we will see an

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ice free summer in the Arctic? (Meier) We've seen the Arctic lose

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ice over the last 35 plus years, and that

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trend has accelerated in the last 10 years. So we're seeing things happen

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very rapidity more rapidity than we have previously thought.

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So its really become not a matter of if we'll see the ice, an ice free

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Arctic, its a matter of when we'll see it. There is a lot of uncertainty about that.

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but it really it's a matter of what year it will be

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when we have an Arctic that its substantially ice free at least during the summer time.

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(reporter) What about the rest of the Arctic aren't we

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seen changes in Greenland as well? (Meier) Along with the sea ice

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we're seeing big changes in Greenland as well. We are seeing more surface

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melt, we're seeing glaciers speeding up, dumping more ice in to the

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ocean. The key thing for Greenland, that's all ice

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that sits on land. So as we lose that ice that goes into the ocean

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that raises sea levels, so that has big impacts globally.

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(reporter) Where can we learn more? (Meier) All of NASA's

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data is on NASA's website, NASA.gov

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you can also go on Twitter to @NASAEarth

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and get all of NASA's data and look at some great imagery and read all about

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what NASA is doing up in the Arctic and around the globe to understand climate.

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(reporter) Great! Thanks so much. Dr. Walt Meier. (Meier) Alright thank you...