The Arctic sea ice holds a central position in the Earth's climate system and it's deteriorating faster than expected.

北极海冰在地球气候系统中占据中心位置，并且它恶化的速度比预期的更快。

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Arctic sea ice usually melts in spring and summer, then grows in winter.

北极的海冰通常在春天和夏天融化，然后在冬天形成。

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Arctic sea ice has also retreated at a faster than average rate.

北冰洋海域的冰雪正以超过平均速度的速度溶逝。

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The two government agencies have been studying Arctic Sea ice from space since nineteen seventy-nine.

VOA: special.2009.05.05

They also look very similar to the simulations coming out of Piomas (Pan-Arctic Ice-Ocean Modelling and Assimilation System), an influential computer model that has been used to estimate Arctic sea-ice volume and which has been the basis for several predictions about when summer sea ice might disappear completely.

BBC: Cryosat spots Arctic sea-ice loss in autumn

The best hope lies in trying to identify the broader changes under way - for example with the retreat of the Arctic sea-ice or the cycle of warming in the Pacific Ocean with El Nino and La Nina.

BBC: Predicting the next big flood

One-hundred-and-two holes have been dug so far and 1, 100 measurements have been made of ice thickness, snow density and other features - data deemed vital by scientists evaluating the future of the Arctic sea-ice.

BBC: Arctic team gives up on ice radar