Global sea ice levels are decreasing almost every day, but it can be difficult to visualise the extent of the melting.

Now a new alarming 'doom spiral' animation puts the damage done last year into perspective.

The animation shows how stable sea ice levels have been over the last 40 years - until 2016.

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ICE LOSS IN 2016 In the Arctic, sea ice reached the lowest winter maximum extent on record in March 2016, which did not bode well for the rest of the year. And while it managed to avoid becoming a new lowest summer minimum extent, it was the second lowest extent ever recorded. 2016 resulted in an annual average for Arctic sea ice extent that was lower than any year ever recorded. Meanwhile in the Antarctic, sea ice levels were at the average to low levels for much of 2016, until October, when sea ice dipped to record lows and remained there for the rest of the year. Advertisement

The animation was created by Kevin Pluck from Manchester, who posted it on Imgur.

The data is based on a graph in November, which shows the area of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic lost each year, from 1978-2017.

What is clear from both the original graph and animation, is that global sea ice levels were fairly stable for the last 40 years, until 2016 when they significantly dropped.

In the Arctic, sea ice reached the lowest winter maximum extent on record in March 2016, which did not bode well for the rest of the year.

And while it managed to avoid becoming a new lowest summer minimum extent, it was the second lowest extent ever recorded.

The animation shows that global sea ice levels were fairly stable for the last 40 years

But in 2016 and leading into 2017, sea ice levels were shown to dramatically decrease

The National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) said in a statement: 'That September 2016 did not see a new record low is likely due to the unusually stormy atmospheric pattern that set up over the Arctic Ocean in the summer.

'Storm after storm moved into the central Arctic Ocean, including a pair of very deep low pressure systems in late August.

'While a stormy pattern will tend to chew up the ice cover, it also spreads the ice out to cover a larger area and typically brings cloudy and, in summer, relatively cool conditions, inhibiting melt.'

The data is based on a graph posted in November, which shows the area of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic lost each year, from 1978-2017

Despite this, 2016 resulted in an annual average for Arctic sea ice extent that was lower than any year ever recorded.

Meanwhile in the Antarctic, sea ice levels were at average to low levels for much of 2016, until October, when sea ice dipped to record lows and remained there for the rest of the year.

The NSIDC said: 'The cause of the rapid drop in Antarctic sea ice in the second half of 2016 remains elusive.

'Significant changes in Southern Ocean wind patterns were observed in August, September, and November, but air temperatures and ocean conditions were not highly unusual.'

While the cause is open for debate, there is some evidence that extreme weather events such as this are being driven by man-made climate change, according to a report in the New Scientist.

Cold air is usually locked up in the Arctic by the jet stream.

But as this jet stream weakens as a result of global warming, it allows cold Arctic air to move south, causing warm air to replace it.

In May last year, a similar animation showed how global temperature has changed since 1850

In the graphic, until around the 1930s the global temperature change is shown remaining relatively small but starts growing slowly after that

HEATING UP THE WORLD'S OCEANS The amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997. In a recent study, researchers tracked how much man-made heat has been buried in the oceans in the past 150 years. The world's oceans absorbed approximately 150 zettajoules of energy from 1865 to 1997, and then absorbed about another 150 in the next 18 years, according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change. To put that in perspective, if you exploded one atomic bomb the size of the one that dropped on Hiroshima every second for a year, the total energy released would be two zettajoules. So since 1997, Earth's oceans have absorbed man-made heat energy equivalent to a Hiroshima-style bomb being exploded every second for 75 straight years. Advertisement

Together, the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice loss for the year has been the lowest global average on record.

In May last year, a similar spiral animation showed how global temperature has changed since 1850.

In the graphic, until around the 1930s the global temperature change is shown remaining relatively small but starts growing slowly after that.

When the GIF reaches the late 1990s, however, the temperature change increases considerably.

Dr Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading who created the visualisation, told MailOnline: 'I wanted to try to visualise the global changes we have seen in different ways to learn about how we might improve our communication.

'The pace of change is immediately obvious, especially over the past few decades, and the relationship between current global temperatures and the internationally discussed limits are also clear.'

When the GIF reaches the late 1990s, and all the way through to 2016 however, the temperature change increases considerably

Within the animation it is also possible to see how global events such as the El Nino phenomenon alter temperatures around the world.

For example, there is a small amount of cooling between the 1880s and 1910 due to volcanic eruptions before warming again between 1910 and the 1940s.

Dr Hawkins said this warming was due to a small increase in solar output and natural variability and recovery from the volcanic eruptions.

In the Arctic, sea ice reached the lowest winter maximum extent on record in March 2016, which did not bode well for the rest of the year. Pictured are patterns of melting ice in Nunavut



