17 February 2018, Independent, Global sea ice hits record low for January as the annual polar melting period expanded. The world’s sea ice shrank to a record January low last month as the annual polar melting period expanded, experts say. The 5.04 million square miles of ice in the Arctic was 525,000 square miles below the 1981-to-2010 ice cover average, making it the lowest January total in satellite records, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Combined with low levels in the Antarctic, global sea ice amounted to a record low for any first month of the year, the organisation concluded. The news comes just days after researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder said the rate at which sea levels are rising was increasing every year, driven mostly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica. The NSIDC, a respected authority on the Earth’s frozen regions, which researches and analyses snow, glaciers and ice sheets among other features, said that ice in the Arctic Ocean hit “a new record low” at both the start and end of last month. In an online post, the group said: “January of 2018 began and ended with satellite-era record lows in Arctic sea ice extent, resulting in a new record low for the month. Combined with low ice extent in the Antarctic, global sea ice extent is also at a record low.” Read More here
Tag Archives: oceans
13 February 2018, NASA Goddard Institute, The rate of global sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades, rather than increasing steadily, according to a new study based on 25 years of NASA and European satellite data. This acceleration, driven … Continue reading →
30 January 2018, The Conversation, Climate scientists explore hidden ocean beneath Antarctica’s largest ice shelf. Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf is the world’s largest floating slab of ice: it’s about the size of Spain, and nearly a kilometre thick. The ocean beneath, roughly the volume of the North Sea, is one of the most important but least understood parts of the climate system. We are part of the multi-disciplinary Aotearoa New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf programme team, and have melted a hole through hundreds of metres of ice to explore this ocean and the ice shelf’s vulnerability to climate change. Our measurements show that this hidden ocean is warming and freshening – but in ways we weren’t expecting. A hidden conveyor belt All major ice shelves are found around the coast of Antarctica. These massive pieces of ice hold back the land-locked ice sheets that, if freed to melt into the ocean, would raise sea levels and change the face of our world. An ice shelf is a massive lid of ice that forms when glaciers flow off the land and merge as they float out over the coastal ocean. Shelves lose ice by either breaking off icebergs or by melting from below. We can see big icebergs from satellites – it is the melting that is hidden. Because the water flowing underneath the Ross Ice Shelf is cold (minus 1.9C), it is called a “cold cavity”. If it warms, the future of the shelf and the ice upstream could change dramatically. Yet this hidden ocean is excluded from all present models of future climate. All major ice shelves are found around the coast of Antarctica. These massive pieces of ice hold back the land-locked ice sheets that, if freed to melt into the ocean, would raise sea levels and change the face of our world. An ice shelf is a massive lid of ice that forms when glaciers flow off the land and merge as they float out over the coastal ocean. Shelves lose ice by either breaking off icebergs or by melting from below. We can see big icebergs from satellites – it is the melting that is hidden. Because the water flowing underneath the Ross Ice Shelf is cold (minus 1.9C), it is called a “cold cavity”. If it warms, the future of the shelf and the ice upstream could change dramatically. Yet this hidden ocean is excluded from all present models of future climate. Read More here
10 January 2018, CSIRO-ECOS, Scientist’s 30-year search for Southern Ocean climate secrets. After more than 24 hours the ice breaker still hadn’t managed to break through the heavy sea ice and Chief Scientist Dr Steve Rintoul had secretly given up hope. All that would change in seconds though, leading to the senior scientist’s greatest but most disturbing discovery of his 30 year career. It was January 2015 when Rintoul and his team aboard the RSV Aurora Australis achieved what no others had managed – reaching the front of the Totten Glacier. They found that warm water was flooding into the cavity beneath the floating ice, melting what was thought to be a stable area of East Antarctica. The sea level rise problem had just got worse. wo years on, Rintoul will return to the Southern Ocean aboard CSIRO’s research vessel Investigator, this time further east towards the Mertz Glacier, on an expedition to piece together some of the remaining unknowns of the climate-critical region. With a physics degree from Harvard, post-graduate qualifications from MIT and Woods Hole, a post-doctorate from Princeton, and decades of experience in Southern Ocean research, Rintoul is more than qualified to lead the voyage. Read More here