The situation is critical! More heat entering the Arctic Ocean threatens to destabilize hydrates and cause huge amounts of methane to erupt and enter the atmosphere.
The image on the right, adapted from NASA Worldview, shows the poor state of the sea ice.
On September 8, 2023, the Polarstern reached the North Pole. The image below shows the research vessel and the sea ice at the North Pole.
On September 8, 2023, the Polarstern reached the North Pole. The image below shows the research vessel and the sea ice at the North Pole.
#Polarstern reaches the #NorthPole for the seventh time 🫶Five weeks after setting sail from Tromsø, our research vessel makes a stop at the northernmost point on Earth. #AWI https://t.co/iNxZYZUSk3
— AWI Media (@AWI_Media) September 8, 2023
📸Esther Horvath pic.twitter.com/E4uuzosbtU
The threat is that, as the water of the Arctic Ocean keeps heating up, heat will reach the seafloor and destabilize methane hydrates contained in sediments at the seafloor, resulting in eruptions of huge amounts of methane.
Erupting from the hydrates occurs at great force, since the methane expands 160 when decompressed, resulting in the methane rapidly rising in the form of plumes, leaving little or no opportunity for microbes to decompose the methane in the water column. Furthermore, the atmosphere over the Arctic contains very little hydroxyl, resulting in methane persisting in the air over the Arctic much longer than elsewhere.
After months of very high temperatures, the Arctic reached a new record high temperature for the time of year, i.e. 1.52°C on September 10, 2023, an anomaly of 2.25°C.
Meanwhile, global sea ice extent is much lower than in any other year on record for this time of year.
Ominously, very high methane levels continue to be recorded at Barrow, Alaska, U.S.
Conclusion
Links
• Climate Reanalyzer - North Atlantic sea surface temperature
• NASA Worldview
• Polarstern reaches North Pole - Research icebreaker at the northernmost point of the earth for the seventh time
• University of Bremen - Arctic sea ice concentration
• NOAA - Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, United States
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html
• Transforming Society
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/transforming-society.html
• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html
