‘Chasing Ice’: Time-Lapse Cameras Capture Rapidly Melting Glaciers
Published on YouTube Nov 16, 2012: Extreme Ice Survey’s James Balog captured dramatic footage of disappearing Arctic ice.
A Mechanism for Shallow Methane Hydrate Dissociation
I previously looked at the science and commercial usage of Methane Hydrate, at freshwater influx in the Arctic Circle and asked Does Freshwater Runoff in the Arctic change Ocean Circulation to Unlock Methane Hydrate in the Deep Ocean? This post covers: Identification of possible mechanism which could eventually release vast quantities of shallow Methane Hydrate…
NASA Finds ‘Amazing’ Levels Of Arctic Methane And CO2, Asks ‘Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?’
By Joe Romm / Climate Progress – on Jun 13, 2013: A NASA science team has observed “amazing and potentially troubling” levels of methane and CO2 from the rapidly warming Arctic. Given the staggering amount of carbon trapped in the permafrost — and the fact that methane is a very potent heat-trapping gas — the…
Arctic Ocean freshwater bulge detected
UK scientists have detected a huge dome of fresh water that is developing in the western Arctic Ocean. The bulge is some 8,000 cubic km in size and has risen by about 15cm since 2002. The team thinks it may be the result of strong winds whipping up a great clockwise current in the northern…
Does Freshwater Runoff in the Arctic change Ocean Circulation to Unlock Methane Hydrate in the Deep Ocean?
Recently freshwater intake into the Arctic Circle have changed ocean currents, in the following a collection of related science, and what if freshwater currents drive warmer water into the deep ocean and unlock methane hydrates? Mechanism have been identified recently. Arctic freshwater input into the North Pacific could serve as a catalyst for methane hydrate…
Glaciers and Global Warming
Published on YouTube Nov 21, 2012: Ice shelves that have lived for more than 10,000 years are disintegrating rapidly — in 6 weeks or less. U-M professor Jeremy Bassis is exploring how global warming is effecting glacial calving, and what impact these events will have on the rise of sea level. Related Greenland And Antarctica…
Does Sea Ice loss create the condition for an emerging permanent El Nino state?
Recently Doug asked: “…my question is, how far could this phenomenon go? What is the “end” state? Is it possible for example that we could find the jet stream staying in place for months at a time, years, decades? How wavy could this waviness become?” A main theme of Sea ice loss seems to be…
Melting Sea Ice in the Arctic
Five Myths About Arctic Sea Ice http://sites.agu.org/sharingscience/f… Changes in Arctic sea ice coverage are happening at unprecedented rates, with 2012 setting a new record low for sea ice extent. Our ability to predict changes of sea ice loss and understand the impacts on society, from commercial shipping to resource availability, will be driven by further…
Cryosat reveals major loss of Arctic sea ice
13 February 2013: An international team of scientists using new measurements from ESA’s ice mission has discovered that the volume of Arctic sea ice has declined by 36% during autumn and 9% during winter between 2003 and 2012. Satellite records show a constant downward trend in the area covered by Arctic sea ice during all…
ScienceCasts: The “Sleeping Giant” in Arctic Permafrost
Visit science.nasa.gov/ for breaking science news. Arctic permafrost soils contain more accumulated carbon than all the human fossil-fuel emissions since 1850 combined. Warming Arctic permafrost, poised to release its own gases into the atmosphere, could be the “sleeping giant” of climate change. NASA Finds ‘Amazing’ Levels Of Arctic Methane And CO2, Asks ‘Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring…
Vast methane ‘plumes’ seen in Arctic ocean as sea ice retreats
The Independent, December 13, 2011: Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region. The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head…
Exceptional 2012 Greenland Ice Melt Caused By Jet Stream Changes That May Be Driven By Global Warming
By Joe Romm / Climate Progress: New research finds that “unusual changes in atmospheric jet stream circulation caused the exceptional surface melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) in summer 2012.” Prof. Jennifer Francis tells me these changes are consistent with those caused by warming-driven “Arctic Amplification.” And that means GrIS may melt faster than…
Cyclone Activity Has Been Intensified in the Arctic
Cyclones are key weather elements that make a major contribution to climate trends and variability, and that also bring intense high-frequency changes in wind, temperature and precipitation. Given the recent dramatic change of the Arctic climate, Arctic cyclone activity has attracted an increasing amount of attention. We investigated the Arctic cyclone activity in the context…
Geologic methane seeps along boundaries of Arctic permafrost thaw and melting glaciers
Release of 14C-depleted methane to the atmosphere from abundant gas seeps concentrated along boundaries of permafrost thaw and receding glaciers in Alaska and Greenland Nature Geoscience (2012) Abstract Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, accumulates in subsurface hydrocarbon reservoirs, such as coal beds and natural gas deposits. In the Arctic, permafrost and glaciers form a ‘cryosphere…
Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment
Landmark Report of an Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate – Woods Hole, Massachusetts to the Climate Research Board, Assembly of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, National Research Council, NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES | Washington, D.C. 1979 We have examined the principal attempts to simulate the effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on climate.…