According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest analysis of global temperatures, October 2011 was the 8th warmest October ever recorded since 1880. NOAA’s National Climatic Data Centre provide a series of reports as part of their services to the government, business and community leaders, which have been helping everybody keep a track of
Scientists working with NASA’s Operation IceBridge airborne research campaign started their third year of survey flights and captured this image of the sea ice covering the Weddell Sea.
On September 9 scientists from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder showed satellite data that capped summertime sea ice coverage at the second lowest ever recorded since records were first kept. Seen below marked out in yellow is the 30 year average, while the red line represents the opening of the Northwest Passage shipping lane.
Taken by a member of the ICESCAPE mission on board the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy as it steamed its way south in the Arctic Ocean towards the edge of the sea ice on July 20.
As reported yesterday the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center announced that the Arctic sea ice minimum extent would come in as second lowest since recording began back in 1979. Now, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has provided their own series of images and videos to back up that report, showing the extent of Arctic sea ice for September 9, 2011.
According to America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2011’s August was the eighth warmest since record keeping began back in 1880 and the period of June to August was the seventh warmest such period as well.
The American National Snow and Ice Data Center has announced – in a differing view than that put forward by the University of Bremen scientists earlier in the week – that the Arctic sea ice extent has slowed and is nearing its minimum extent.
Researchers from the University of Bremen have announced that 2011’s Arctic Sea Ice Minimum is the smallest in recorded history, coming in under the previous lowest Minimum in September of 2007.
Artist John Quigley has travelled to the Arctic sea ice and drawn Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous sketch the ‘Vitruvian Man’ onto the Arctic Ice as a way to show what humans have done to the planet.
A growing body of scientific evidence has led researchers to believe that in a warmer climate there will be no “tipping point” beyond which the Arctic sea ice cannot recover if temperatures start to decrease. Added to this is new research out of the University of Washington which suggests that even if the planet warmed enough to melt all polar sea ice, it could still recover if the temperatures cooled again.
Much concern has been made about the dramatic drop in Arctic sea ice levels over the past decade, but new research out of Denmark suggests that the extent of the Arctic sea ice is extremely variable.
A statement from the Russian environmental monitoring agency on Thursday says that the melting in the polar ice cap is nearing the 2007 record minimum levels, and in some instances is 50% smaller than the average.
According to new research presented at the XXV International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics General Assembly in Melbourne, Australia, rising temperatures in the Arctic have led to an increase in the amount of rainfall, and thus, a decrease in the amount of snowfall.
NASA satellite imagery shows us just how much sea ice is being lost compared to the average in the Arctic.
“Lots of people think of the Arctic as just a flat expanse of white. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There are all sorts of cracks (leads) and mountains (ridges), similar to tectonic plates. The ice below is constantly moving via the winds and currents, and those forces acting on each piece of ice makes for a very dramatic seascape”
The seven lowest maximum Arctic sea ice extent measurements have all taken place in the last seven years, and 2011 is no different, according to the most recent satellite measurements taken by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. “I’m not surprised by the new data because we’ve seen
Scientists believe that the more severe winters suffered by the UK over the past few years are a result of disappearing ice in the Arctic sea. A reduction in sea ice, they explain, could be the reason for the colder winters, which up until recently have been insulating temperature changes in the sea from the atmosphere.
