9/17 AMSR Arctic Ice Imaging - Small Areas Of 50% Coverage Within 200 Miles Of North Pole

[hatrack]

Most of Beaufort Sea now down to 50% or less south of 80 North - what little ice remains, that is.

Unbelievable.

http://iup.physik.uni-bremen.de:8084/amsr/arctic_AMSRE_nic.png

[phantom power]

1. derivative with respect to time... its absolute value is greater than anticipated...

seriously, I can't believe how fast it's disappearing up there.

[intaglio]

2. Hey Look! The Northwest Passage is open

What a commercial opportunity! surely this shows that it is the Loooords will :sarcasm:

[Delphinus]

3. This might tie in with your story:

Arctic Ice Coverage Will Shrink to 2050 Projections… This Summer

Sometimes you wish records didn't get broken. A group of Japanese science agencies announced today that the area of the Arctic Sea covered by ice is at its lowest level ever recorded. It reached this low point on August 15th, and it's going to get worse. Ice levels should continue to shrink all the way through mid-September. If reality matches predictions, the ice levels will reach IPCC predictions 40 years ahead of schedule.


{snip}
http://www.universetoday.com/2007/08/17/arctic-ice-coverage-will-shrink-to-2050-projections-this-summer/

================

I've never heard of this site, Universe Today, but that's not a pretty story.

[tom_paine]

5. There was a thread in this forum recently about the Northwest Passage

becoming a reality for shipping by 2020, and probably being a good bit more beneficial than using the Panama Canal for commercal reasons.

Wow. The Northwest Passage viable. Somebody raise Zombie Hudson from the grave!

[XemaSab]

4. I have sort of a stupid question:

The ice accumulates over time, no?

Meaning that it's like Antarctica, where the ice you see is the result of years (or decades or centuries) of accumulation?

So once it's melted, the likelihood of having ice up there in future summers is small, no?

:shrug:

(and thanks)

[phantom power]

6. I think there are some differences between sea ice and land ice-sheets.

The sea ice is far thinner. It's the first to go (as we're all seeing), but it also could be the first to come back. However, since the trends are all warming, and the feedbacks are positive, any ice we lose at this point isn't going to be returning, transient variations excepted.

I'm really not sure what it would take at this point to reverse the trend. Some change as large and abrupt as a THC shutdown, I guess. Maybe more?

The pole does spend winter months in unending darkness. That's a lot of heat loss, so I assume there will be winter ice formation for a while. But if the polar seas are now soaking up huge amounts of sun all summer, maybe that will stop happening too?

terra incognita...

[XemaSab]

7. Word

Thanks for the reply.

[hatrack]

8. Also, as Phantom Power has noted, sea ice is far thinner than glacial caps a la Greenland . . .

Another salient point that doesn't get mentioned is that the thickness of the pack ice has drastically decreased - down by about 40% between 1976 and 1993, according to data supplied by the US Navy, among others.

http://www.grida.no/climate/vital/30.htm