The analysis produced a summer Arctic sea-ice minimum extent of 6.9 million sq km.
BBC: Earliest satellite maps of Antarctic and Arctic sea-ice
It is widely expected Arctic sea-ice will be totally lost in summer with a few years to a decade or so, perhaps at less than 1C or warming.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), Arctic sea-ice covered 4.5 million sq km (1.7 million sq miles) at its lowest point on 12 September last year.
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.
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.
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.
For instance, sea ice is predicted to increasingly shrink as a result of climate change: the late-summer Arctic sea ice may vanish almost entirely by the middle of the century, triggering unprecedented maritime challenges, with an increase in shipping and oil and gas exploration in high-latitude waters previously covered in ice.
Loss of ice in the Arctic, and in particular the extensive sea-ice, has global implications.
Very few scientists think Greenland would be stable in an Arctic with little or no summer sea-ice, and opinion is split as to whether it is past its tipping point already.
Using spacecraft data to make an Arctic-wide assessment of sea ice thickness , a University College London team found the 2008 winter maximum to be about 10% (26cm) below the 2002-2008 average.
And in February 2009 it was discovered that scientists had previously been underestimating the re-growth of Arctic sea ice by an area larger than the state of California (twice as large as New Zealand).
Martin Sommerkorn from the WWF International Arctic Program believes that the changes in sea-ice cover in the region are likely to increase global temperatures further.
Added to the general atmospheric warming in the region, the researchers also describe an amplification process whereby reduced snow cover on the surrounding tundra and less sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean push up temperatures still further.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported in early March that 2011 has tied with 2006 for the record low sea-ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean (in the satellite record).
"Seymour's work provided evidence with which to propose and eventually launch the Cryosat mission, which is now - as his last paper describes - providing the first observations of the annual cycle of sea-ice growth and decay throughout the Arctic Ocean, " Dr Giles said.
In the Lords (from 2.30pm) questions from peers range across the record-low sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean during the past year and the likely future of oil prices , before peers continue the marathon committee stage consideration of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill.
According to a recent paper by Francis and Vavrus in Geophysical Research Letters, the preferential warming of the Arctic, with a concomitant decline in late-summer sea ice, results in a more meandering jet stream, which is why Sandy shifted westward, rather than being shoved out to sea by the normally strong westerlies associated with the jet.
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Today, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, in conjunction with NASA, announced today that Arctic sea ice has reached a record low since the previous record-breaking low in 2007.
The general warming trend -- 13 of the warmest years have occurred in the 15 years since 1997 -- was highlighted by summer sea ice melt in the Arctic.
The Arctic sea ice is constantly moving, breaking open and reforming into different shapes - which means we can end up moving several kilometres in any direction while we are asleep in our tents.
This has allowed scientists to retrieve information about the Arctic Ocean region's gravity field, its surface circulation, and the thickness of its sea-ice cover.
And now the Arctic's upper layers are getting less dense, for several reasons: melting Arctic glaciers, rising surface-water temperatures, increased precipitation and an absence of salt concentrations resulting from sea-ice formation.
Cryosat-2 will measure very precisely the rates of change of sea and land ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
That means more melting ice in the Arctic, dumping fresh water into the salty sea and making a mess of the all-important Gulf jet stream, which makes northern U.S. habitable.
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However, although the sea ice is shrinking -- covering less total area as well as becoming thinner -- the Arctic is still a world ruled by ice, a lesson well learned when the Polar Pioneer encountered heavy pack ice between Svalbard and the eastern coast of Greenland, forcing the captain to divert the boat and drop speed to just a few knots.
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