Friday, March 22, 2013

Arctic Ice Breaks Up in Beaufort Sea


The NOAA image below gives an update on the temperature anomaly over Greenland, as earlier discussed in the post including Huge patches of warm air over the Arctic.



Below a NOAA animation showing a 30-day loop (up to March 19, 2013) of analyzed 200-hPa heights and anomalies. An eleven-day mean, centered on the date indicated in the title, of 200-hPa heights and anomalies from the NCEP Climate Data Assimilation System (CDAS), is shown for the first 25 days of the animation. 10-, 9-, 8-, 7-, and 6-day running means are shown for the last 5 days, respectively. Contour interval for heights is 120 m, anomalies are indicated by shading. Anomalies are departures from the 1979-95 daily base period means.


As discussed in earlier posts (see below), changes to the jet stream are making extreme weather events increasingly likely to occur, which spells bad news for the sea ice.


Below a NASA video with satellite images showing the Arctic sea ice breaking up in the Beaufort Sea.



A series of intense storms in the Arctic has caused fracturing of the sea ice around the Beaufort Sea along the northern coasts of Alaska and Canada. High-resolution imagery from the Suomi NPP satellite shows the evolution of the cracks forming in the ice, called leads, from February 17 -- March 18 2013. The general circulation of the area is seen moving the ice westward along the Alaskan coast.


Finally, the Naval Research Laboratory animation below shows the thickness of the sea ice over the past 30 days.




Related posts

Huge patches of warm air over the Arctic
Polar jet stream appears hugely deformed
Hurricane Sandy moving inland

4 comments:

  1. http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/16dec_giantbreach/

    Would this have anything to do with the extreme weather patterns and the Arctic ice depletion?
    I am no scientist on paper but I do have the ability to read and make correlations. This information appears to correlate with the dire situation in the Arctic and what I find so cognitively dissonant is this; For nearly a decade we have been experiencing massive weather changes that have had a profound effect upon plant and animal life as well as human . We are watching animals migrate to regions that would be, under normal conditions, inhospitable to their survival. I am noticing the conifers under extreme stress here in Michigan due to the warmer temperatures we are 'enjoying' at the present. Their needles are turning brown. I have even noticed that my perennials rarely go dormant anymore due to these climatological changes. With millions of tons of sea life washing up on beaches, birds dropping from the skies and other bizarre anomolies I am completely shocked by the lack of public acknowledgement by those who study the ecology of our planet. What is worse is that these events are merely reported in the media for their shock value and never touch upon the serious studies of scientific groups. How is this possible that we could be heading into an extinction level event and nary a word is reported in mainstream news outlets? I call this Cognitive Dissonance.
    We can see what is happening all around our globe but we act as though it is "business as usual".
    Can anyone here explain to me how a society, with the advanced technology that we possess, let an extinction level event evolve without so much as a blip on the global radar?
    "Policy/Politics" should never be an excuse for allowing such a dire situation go unheeded.

    There are nearly 8 billion brains on this planet, surely just 1 tenth of that 8 billion could come up with a viable solution to this cataclysmic event? With that being said, I go back to the NASA data on the Earth's Magnetsophere; If the Earth lacks protection from the Sun's harmful radiation then would this not be the proverbial "canary in the coal mine". Would this not be perhaps one of the causes of the rapid depletion of the Arctic Ice?

    Thanks for any and all elucidation on this, beyond dire, situation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The breakup of Arctic sea ice corresponds to time of rapid increase of Arctic atmospheric pressure relative to altitude corresponding to norm at Stratosphere lower boundary approximately. This is on par with what I'd expect to happen given that Methane levels from Sea there rises with breakup of sea ice. And the fact that Methane has tendency to rise quickly because it is lighter than air..
    But given the break up and apparent motion of sea ice is at winter's near end when sea ice would normally be most solid and fast Things look ominous indeed..
    There is little time to speak if we don't get a handle on this and stop it now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is it still possible to prepare for disasters, even in the face of one's similar to what is described here: http://killerinourmidst.com/now.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Comprehensive and effective action should be taken to reduce the risks, as described at the climateplan blog.

      Delete