Greenland Anomaly: Late Season Melt Pulse + Methane Emissions August 4th 2013

2013, Atmosphere, Deglaciation, Greenhouse Gases, Greenland, Jet Stream / Polar Vortex, Methane (CH4), Science Talk, Temperature, Year5 Comments

Follow ClimateState on facebook for climate research https://www.facebook.com/ClimateState Extensive Dark Snow, Very Large Melt Lakes Visible Over West Slope of Greenland as Late Season Melt Pulse Continues by robertscribbler on August 5, 2013 http://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/extensive-dark-snow-very-large-melt-lakes-visible-over-west-slope-of-greenland-as-late-season-melt-pulse-continues/ Sat Image source: NSIDC http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/ Methane visualization 4th August 2013 MODIS Terra & Aqua (MODIS Combined Value-Added) Aerosol Optical Depth via…

The Late Triassic Extinction, Persistent Photic Zone Euxinia, and Rising Sea Levels

Atmosphere, Biosphere, Climate Proxies, Cretaceous, Cryosphere, Greenhouse Gases, Hydrosphere, Jurrasic, Methane (CH4), Ocean Currents, Ocean Stratification, Oceanography, Oxygen, Paleoclimatology, Science Talk, Sea Level Rise, Study, Temperature Reconstruction, Triassic, VolcanologyLeave a comment

Elevated pCO2 leading to Late Triassic extinction, persistent photic zone euxinia, and rising sea levels Caroline M.B. Jaraula, Kliti Grice, Richard J. Twitchett, Michael E. Böttcher, Pierre LeMetayer, Apratim G. Dastidar and L. Felipe Opazo doi:10.1130/G34183.1 Abstract The Late Triassic mass extinction event is the most severe global warming-related crisis to have affected important extant…

Antarctic Methane Emissions

Antarctica, EAIS, Greenhouse Gases, Methane (CH4), Region, YearLeave a comment

METOP-2 imagery reveals that there is a significant area of high methane concentration over Antarctica. A study paper from 2012 reported that as glaciers melt, gas could belch into atmosphere. Potential Methane Reservoirs Beneath AntarcticaAug. 29, 2012 — The Antarctic Ice Sheet could be an overlooked but important source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas,…

ScienceCasts: The “Sleeping Giant” in Arctic Permafrost

2013, Arctic, Atmosphere, Greenhouse Gases, Methane (CH4), Permafrost, Soil, StudyLeave a comment

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

2011, Arctic, Arctic Circle, Atmosphere, Climate Feedbacks, Greenhouse Gases, Hydrosphere, Methane (CH4), Oceanography, Region, Russia, Science Talk, Siberia, StudyLeave a comment

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…

Estimating the permafrost-carbon feedback on global warming

2012, Greenhouse Gases, Methane (CH4), Model, Permafrost, Policy, Soil, StudyLeave a comment

A key uncertainty is the fraction of carbon that might be decomposed under anaerobic conditions – resulting potentially in methane emissions to the atmosphere. Given the high warming potential of methane, the overall magnitude of the permafrost-carbon feedback will depend strongly on this fraction. Thawing of permafrost and the associated release of carbon constitutes a…

Soil carbon and climate change: from the Jenkinson effect to the compost-bomb instability

2011, Biosphere, Climate Feedbacks, Global, Greenhouse Gases, Methane (CH4), Microbiology, Pedology, Permafrost, Respiration, SoilLeave a comment

Study: Long-term warming equivalent to 10°C per century could be sufficient to trigger compost-bomb instability in drying organic soils Wiley: First generation climate–carbon cycle models suggest that climate change will suppress carbon accumulation in soils, and could even lead to a net loss of global soil carbon over the next century. These model results are qualitatively…

Geologic methane seeps along boundaries of Arctic permafrost thaw and melting glaciers

2012, Alaska, Arctic, Greenhouse Gases, Greenland, Methane (CH4), Permafrost, Region, SoilLeave a comment

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…

Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica

2013, Antarctica, Cryosphere, EAIS, Greenhouse Gases, Ice Sheets, Methane (CH4), Model, Region, Study, WAISLeave a comment

We calculate that the sub-Antarctic hydrate inventory could be of the same order of magnitude as that of recent estimates made for Arctic permafrost. Once thought to be devoid of life, the ice-covered parts of Antarctica are now known to be a reservoir of metabolically active microbial cells and organic carbon. The potential for methanogenic…