In October 2019, an international team of scientists,

John Borden, icebreaker, intentionally led Arctic sea ice

freeze-up around the ship.

They wanted to learn more about the ice itself.

But in April 2020, just halfway through the year-long

experiment, it was unclear if that ice would stay frozen

for the remaining six months of the project.

You're listening to Scientific Americans Science Quickly.

I'm Emily Schwing.

Sea ice, according to scientists, is melting at an alarming

rate.

So quickly that some researchers believe traditional methods

for forecasting its extent may not keep up

with the pace of a changing climate.

By the year 2050, the Arctic could be ice-free in the summer

months.

And shipping traffic in the region is on the rise.

But predicting sea ice extent is complicated.

Today, we're looking at how machine learning, artificial

intelligence, could become the tool of the future for sea ice

forecasting.

We build artificial intelligence and machine learning

...