Earlier this year, scientists warned that sea ice volume reached a record low in 2008 due to an unusually high proportion of the thinner first year ice.

今年的早些时候，科学家们曾发出警告，因为较薄的“一年冰”的比例高于往常，2008年海面冰层的总量会跌至历史新低。

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The problem is that much of that refreezing creates a relatively thin layer of so-called first-year ice.

问题是，重新冻结的冰很大程度上相对较薄，所以被称为“首年冰”。

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Not just the first-year ice might go, but also some of the "rotten" multiyear ice that Barber encountered.

不只是首年冰会融化，而且一些巴贝遇到的那种“烂的”多年冰也会融化。

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The latest findings show that virtually all the ice surveyed is what is called first-year ice, ice that only grew this past winter, as opposed to tougher multi-year ice which survives the warmth of summer.

BBC: Arctic team gives up on ice radar

Each year I guide ski expeditions across the pack ice to the North Geographic Pole and each year brings new surprises -- severe storms rarely seen in these parts, vast tracts of first-year ice where there should be years of accumulation, pack ice drifting faster and farther than ever before.

CNN: The story

Estimates range from 2013 terrifyingly soon to 2050 for the first year when the Arctic is free of ice in summer.

ECONOMIST: An imminent answer to an Arctic riddle