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 scientific research in the region. Areas for…
By Michelle Wheeler, The West Australian: In a room at the White House next week, an extraordinary meeting of the brightest minds will attempt to form a strategy to curb climate change’s crippling effects on the Arctic. Amid fears the top of the planet could be free of summer ice within two years, the meeting has…
BBC: The Arctic seas are being made rapidly more acidic by carbon-dioxide emissions, according to a new report. Scientists from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) monitored widespread changes in ocean chemistry in the region. They say even if CO2 emissions stopped now, it would take tens of thousands of years for Arctic Ocean chemistry to…
Follow National Geographic photographer James Balog across the Arctic as he deploys time-lapse cameras designed for one purpose: to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers. Visit IMDB for more film details. Donate to the project chasingice.com Update The old movie version is no longer available, updated the video URL to a…
Dr. Jennifer Francis – Rutgers University “Extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity all around the northern hemisphere.” Concurrently, Arctic sea ice is in an accelerating decline, the entire surface of Greenland melted for the first time in at least 150 years, glaciers are disappearing around the world, and snow cover on Arctic…
Snow, Water, Ice, Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA)
http://amap.no/swipa/
Snow, Water, Ice, Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA)
http://amap.no/swipa/
2011 SWIPA — A Changing Environment + SWIPA — The New Arctic Reality
https://climateforce.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/swipa-a-changing-environment
By Dr Nafeez Ahmed / via Guardian. National security officials worried by rapid loss of Arctic summer sea ice overlook threat of permanent global food shortages.
Senior US government officials are to be briefed at the White House this week on the danger of an ice-free Arctic in the summer within two years. The meeting is bringing together Nasa’s acting chief scientist, Gale Allen, the director of the US National Science Foundation, Cora Marett, as well as representatives from the US Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. This is the latest indication that US officials are increasingly concerned about the international and domestic security implications of climate change.
The transpolar drift (purple arrows) is a dominant circulation feature in the Arctic Ocean that carries freshwater runoff (red arrows) from rivers in Russia across the North Pole and south towards Greenland. Under changing atmospheric conditions, emergent circulation patterns (blue arrows) drive freshwater runoff east towards Canada, resulting in freshening of Arctic water in the…
