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Alaska's
Sea Ice Is Melting Unusually Early, 'Another Sign Arctic Is
Unraveling'
The
meltdown, following an extra warm Arctic winter, will have an impact
on coastal communities and permafrost.
26
May, 2017
The
Arctic's record-warm winter has allowed thousands of square miles of
sea ice off Alaska to melt more than a month early, leaving the
shoreline vulnerable to waves and exposing dark ocean water to absorb
more heat from the sun.
The
loss of ice in the Chukchi Sea will boost the regional temperature
and could increase precipitation over nearby land, said Alaska-based
climate scientist Rick Thoman.
As
of May 24, the ice cover on the Chukchi Sea had melted away from the
shore along a 300 mile stretch, from Point Hope all the way to
Barrow, the northernmost town in the United States. Satellite and
radar data show the ice-free area totaled about 54,000 square miles.
The
huge area of open water off the coast is something you would normally
see in early July, said Mark Serreze, director of the National
Snow and Ice Data Center.
The rapid disintegration of the Chukchi Sea ice is an "exclamation
point" on a remarkable series of rapid fire Arctic changes, he
said.
"It's another sign that the Arctic is unraveling. We had heat waves in the central Arctic last winter, record-low winter sea ice coverage, and even periods of ice retreat when it should be growing. These extremes are moving from place to place," Serreze said.
"If
it's just one event, you can say it's natural variability, but it's
the collective picture you're seeing now, that things are changing
very fast," he said. "If this is natural variability, it's
of a kind I'm not familiar with."
The
sea ice meltdown was just mapped in the past few days. Scientists
suspect it was caused by a combination of factors, including an
inflow of relatively warm Pacific Ocean water through the Bering
Strait and record warmth across the entire Arctic region that
persisted most of 2016 and early 2017.
Last
autumn, the same area remained unfrozen until late in the season,
shortening the freeze-up by at least a month. That meant there was
less time for the ice to grow thick, leaving it more susceptible to
faster melting in the spring, said ice scientist Lars Kaleschke, with
the University of Hamburg. The ice was already unusually thin in the
Chukchi Sea in March and April, he said.
The
rapid recent decline in ice coverage and thickness has led
researchers to believe that most of the Arctic Ocean will be free of
ice in the summers as soon as the mid-2020s.
NSIDC researcher Julienne Stroeve, currently based at University College, London, said at a recent science conference that each of the last 10 years saw record-low sea ice coverage, and that there were seven months of record-low sea ice conditions during 2016, setting the stage for a Chukchi Sea meltdown.
Sea
ice conditions were so unusual in late 2016 that NSIDC lead scientist
Ted Scambos called it ablack
swan event in
December, after reporting record low ice extent in the Arctic and
Antarctica, far below natural historic variations. In mid-November
2016, much of the Arctic—spanning an area as large as the lower 48
states—was 30 to 35 degrees above average.
Currently,
a thin strip of shore-fast ice remains along Alaska's north coast,
but it's exposed to the open ocean and will melt fast, which means a
much longer season during which waves will batter crumbling
permafrost bluffs and threaten coastal roads and communities.
It's
important to remember that a large part of the world's coast is
Arctic, and that erosion, on average, is taking a 1.5-foot bite out
of that coastline each year, said Michael Fritz, a polar and ocean
researcher with the Alfred
Wegener Institute in
Potsdam, Germany.
Fritz
has been studying how coastal erosion releases organic carbon into
the ocean and atmosphere, where it forms more heat-trapping carbon
dioxide, which intensifies the cycle of Arctic melting.
The
open water that is left exposed when the sea ice disappears also
absorbs more solar radiation, further warming the ocean. Thoman said
the open ocean could also add moisture to the atmosphere and fuel
increased snow and rain over and.
The
meltdown of ice in the Chukchi Sea also affects the ability of native
Inupiak communities to travel and hunt for walrus, seals and whales.
"When
you get this much open water this early, some of the species may be
too far away or too dispersed," Thoman said.
Laptev
Sea 2016 vs 2017
Researchers amass in southern Chile to observe effect of climate change
Researchers
don't think a frozen arctic will always be as stable or as safe as we
thought it would be.
We've
built everything from roads to pipelines to nuclear power stations on
the cold ground at the top of the world. But climate change means ice
is melting, and permafrost is getting less permanent.
In
Greenland, melting ice is expected to expose an old U.S. military
base — and the radioactive waste that's buried under the snow.
"They
thought it would snow in perpetuity," arctic researcher William
Colgan told NPR. "And the phrase they used was that the waste
would be preserved for eternity by perpetually accumulating snow."
In
Svalbard, in the Arctic Ocean, there's a bunker holding a huge
catalog of Earth's seeds — a so-called "insurance policy for
the world's food supply."
The
permafrost is supposed to keep it cold and isolated, even if the
power cuts out. But it's been raining instead of snowing due to the
warming climate, and the vault was never planned with flooding in
mind.
Entire
cities in the Arctic Circle are engineered to take advantage of
permafrost. Now they're cracking and sinking. In Norilsk, Russia,
builders didn't account for the possibility of climate change making
their foundations unstable. Whole apartment buildings are being
condemned.
These
changes were unexpected, but we can still address them. Officials in
Norway say they're waterproofing the seed vault. Scientists in the
European Union built a database to track what permafrost is melting
and when.
And
we should be able to prevent some melting outright. The steps we take
to cut emissions and counter climate change will slow down the arctic
thaw.
Scientists
have had their eyes on Greenland as its iconic glaciers have begun
disappearing due to a warming climate. But, what they didn't expect
to see was a whole new type of melting.
The
Rink Glacier, the largest glacier on the west coast of Greenland, was
exhibiting some strange melting behaviors during the hot summers of
2010 and 2012 that can only be described as a "warmed freezer
pop sliding out of its plastic casing." This kind of mass melt
lasted four months between June and September in 2012 with a loss of
6.7 gigatons of mass.
The
mass moved 2.5 miles every month for the first three months, then 7.5
miles all at once in September. That's actually pretty speedy
considering the Rink Glacier usually melts at a speed of one to two
miles a year. But, still, it was slow enough that NASA had to use
aerial GPS data to measure the movement.
"You
could literally be standing there and you would not see any
indication of the wave," said Eric Larour of the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and coauthor of the research. "You would not see
cracks or other unique surface features."
- Cities at most risk from extreme weather still get top ratings
- Storms, floods could diminish tax revenue and raise costs
Few
parts of the U.S. are as exposed to the threats from climate change
as Ocean County, New Jersey. It was here in Seaside Heights that
Hurricane Sandy flooded an oceanfront amusement park, leaving an
inundated roller coaster as an iconic image of rising sea levels.
Scientists say more floods and stronger hurricanes are likely as the
planet warms.
Yet
last summer, when Ocean County wanted to sell $31 million in bonds
maturing over 20 years, neither of its two rating companies, Moody’s
Investors Service or S&P Global Ratings, asked any questions
about the expected effect of climate change on its finances.
Gradual
changes in climate, sea ice changing way of life in Rigolet
As
millions of Canadians eagerly anticipate the arrival of warm weather,
many people living in Canada's North will be lamenting the end of
winter.
For
the Inuit, milder temperatures mean the sea ice is melting, making
travel more difficult. This ice melt is happening earlier and earlier
in the spring because of climate change. In the tiny community of
Rigolet, in Nunatsiavut — located on the northern coast of Labrador
— research shows this is affecting the mental health of the
population.
Planting
trees to take up carbon can only be a small part of our climate
solution
A
new report from the Potsdam Institute in Germany shows that planting
trees and other plants to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
cannot substitute for cutting carbon emissions.
Growing
trees and other kinds of "biomass" have been thought of as
an effective countermeasure against our rising global carbon
emissions. In fact, countries that preserve forests or green spaces
can receive carbon credits that they can trade or sell to other
countries that are polluters.
The
researchers looked at several scenarios. One was the the
"business-as-usual" scenario, in which greenhouse gas
emissions continue to rise at current rates, and which scientists
fear could lead to a global average temperature rise of 4.5 C by
2100. They found that if we want trees to absorb all that extra
carbon, even if we converted all of our agricultural land to biomass
cultivation, it cannot be done without experiencing the "most
dire consequences for food production or the biosphere."
Even
if emissions are reduced to meet the levels agreed to in the UN Paris
Agreement, which aim to keep the planet's average temperature within
2 C of pre-industrial levels, tree planting alone is still not enough
to reach that goal. While it will be an important player in combating
climate change, absorbing carbon with plants will have to be just be
one of several mitigation strategies.
A new
NASA study finds
that during Greenland's hottest summers on record, 2010 and 2012, the
ice in Rink Glacier on the island's west coast didn't just melt
faster than usual, it slid through the glacier's interior in a
gigantic wave, like a warmed freezer pop sliding out of its plastic
casing. The wave persisted for four months, with ice from upstream
continuing to move down to replace the missing mass for at least four
more months.
This
long pulse of mass loss, called a solitary wave, is a new discovery
that may increase the potential for sustained ice loss in Greenland
as the climate continues to warm, with implications for the future
rate of sea level rise.
84% of People Now Consider Climate Change a 'Global Catastrophic Risk'
A
majority of people in eight countries say they are ready to change
their lifestyles if it would prevent climate catastrophe, a survey on
global threats released Wednesday found.
The
poll of 8,000 people in eight countries—the U.S., China, India,
Britain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Germany—found that 84
percent of people now see climate change a "global catastrophic
risk."
It
comes as President Donald Trump goes to Italy for his first
conference with the Group of 7 (G7) to discuss inequality and the
environment. Anti-poverty groups are urging the president not to pull
out of the Paris climate deal, as he has threatened to do
Due
to congressional budget cuts, the 38-year continuous U.S. Arctic
satellite monitoring program is about to end, leaving researchers
blind to ongoing Arctic sea ice losses
- Starting in the mid-1980s, the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) constructed eight “F-series” satellites, in bulk, with the plan to launch satellites in succession as each one failed to maintain a continuous record of Arctic sea ice extent.
- But in 2016, Congress cut the program, resulting in the dismantling of the last, still not launched, satellite. It is now likely that an impending failure of the last DMSP satellites in orbit will leave the world blind until at least 2022, even as the Arctic shows signs of severe instability and decline.
- While international and U.S. monitoring is still being done for ice thickness, the Trump administration has proposed cuts to satellite missions, including NOAA’s next two polar orbiting satellites, NASA’s PACE Satellite (to monitor ocean and atmospheric pollution), and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (for carbon dioxide atmospheric measurements).
- All of these cuts in satellite monitoring come at a time when the world is seeing massive changes due to climate change, development and population growth. One satellite program spared Trump’s budgetary axe so far is Landsat 9, which tracks deforestation and glacial recession. How Congress will deal with Trump’s proposed cuts is unknown.
On
its surface, the Greenland ice sheet is a vast expanse of seemingly
immovable ice. But beneath the monotonous stretch of white,
scientists have discovered evidence of waves rippling through one of
its outlet glaciers and roiling its innards.
The
waves, observed during the two most intense melt seasons on record,
sent an unprecedented cascade of ice and water rushing into the sea
and warping the very bedrock upon which the ice sits. As temperatures
continue to rise, scientists fear that massive waves of ice could
expedite Greenland’s melt even further, pushing sea levels higher.
It’s
the latest piece of bad news about Greenland’s ice. The ice sheet
has been pouring roughly 270 megatons of ice a year into the ocean
via the glaciers that stretch out from its hulking mass since 2000.
That’s a big uptick compared to preceding decades.
The
new research, published earlier this week in Geophysical
Research Letters shows
a new way that climate change is taking a toll. Scientists at the
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, led by Surendra
Adhikari,
were looking at data from a series of GPS stations set up around the
various outlet glaciers that tumble from Greenland’s ice sheet to
the sea. Ironically, they were looking at the GPS data to see if it
was worth maintaining the network of stations that rings Greenland.
A
doorway to 200,000 years ago.
It's
no secret that Siberia's permafrost has been on thin ice lately.
Conditions are varying so much that huge holes are appearing out of
nowhere, and, in some places, tundra is quite literally bubbling
underneath people's feet.
But
new research has revealed that one of the biggest craters in the
region, known by the local Yakutian people as the 'doorway to the
underworld', is growing so rapidly that it's uncovering long-buried
forests, carcasses, and up to 200,000 years of historical climate
records.
It’s
no surprise that a change in our planet’s climate would affect our
coastlines, our weather patterns and our food supply. But here’s
something you may not have considered before: Global warming might
also affect how well we sleep at night.
In
a paper published Friday in Science Advances, researchers show that
when local temperatures get unusually high people don’t sleep as
well as they usually do. And if climate trends continue, we can
expect to have more frequent heat waves that also last longer.
Climate & Extreme Weather News #27 (May 19th to May 27th 2017)
Climate & Extreme Weather News #27 (May 19th to May 27th 2017)
A
further 97 people are still missing, a spokesman said.
Military
boats and helicopters have been sent to help rescue operations
The
flooding is believed to be the worst since May 2003 when a similarly
powerful south-west monsoon destroyed 10,000 homes and killed 250
people.
Several
northern provinces have been hit by flash floods following persistent
heavy rain with the Meteorological Department warning that downpours
will continue until today.
In
Uttaradit, mountain run-off triggered by torrential downpours caused
the Phi and Pladuk creeks in tambon Nam Phi of Thong Saen Khan
district to overflow yesterday.
Floods
submerged scores of villages in tambon Nam Phi with more than 200
households affected.
Final word is with Prof. Guy McPherson
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