The sun shines low in the sky just after midnight over a frozen coastline near the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen on April 26, 2007. Francois Lenoir/REUTERS News from the frozen north has been very, very bad this week.

Not only is sea ice at record lows since we began tracking its seasonal extent into the Arctic Ocean, but scientists announced that Alaska's Juneau Ice Field could disappear in fewer than 200 years.

After a winter that saw Arctic temperatures average 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, are you really surprised?

The Arctic is changing rapidly. Because of the region's sensitivity to temperature (not to mention the potentially disastrous warming feedback loops it might trigger), scientists are watching it carefully for hints about the future of our changing climate.

These photos show just how quickly the Northern Hemisphere's polar regions are evolving.