Temp. Of Norwegian Sea Current Into Arctic Ocean Up 0.8C In 1 Year - AFP

[hatrack]

Several days ago, the 'Maria S Merian' returned from her second Arctic expedition with data confirming trends of Arctic warming. "Compared to last summer, the water that flows from the Norwegian Sea to the Arctic has been an average 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer this summer," says expedition leader Dr Ursula Schauer of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.

"This is in addition to the last two years already having been warmer than the previous 20 from which we have regular measurements. Over the Yermak Plateau, an oceanic ridge, the oceanographers documented water of more than four degrees Celsius moving up to 81 20' northern latitude," according to Schauer. During the expedition, biologists discovered zooplankton species from the Norwegian Sea which were previously unrecorded from the northern latitudes that they had reached via the warm waters.

For one month, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute, the University of Bremen and the Polish Institute of Oceanology were tracking warm waters along the sea ice margin between Greenland and Spitsbergen. As the sea ice margin was far north this year, the 'Maria S Merian' reached its northernmost position yet at 81 20'N.

In Fram Strait, the scientists continued oceanographic and biological long-term studies that were initiated ten years ago.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Arctic_Fever_Getting_Hotter_999.html

[TygrBright]

1. This is bad. This is very bad.

This is slow, irreversable chain-reaction stuff. This WILL end up changing human habitation patterns, with all the misery and disruption that entails.

Like the biggest train wreck ever... in slow, slow motion.

We could probably mitigate the worst effects if we started planning for them now, but we won't. Humanity ain't that much different from the rest of the primate species after all, is it?

forebodingly,
Bright

[Dead_Parrot]

2. 0.8c in a year!?

That's, err, not as slow as may have been anticipated.

[hatrack]

4. Yeah, "Really, really fucking fast" doesn't make it into Nature, as a rule

Shame about the inherent conservatism of science (something else that never gets mentioned by Flush Phlegmball and Comapny) not quite letting on just how amazingly rapid this transition is, isn't it?

[Nihil]

5. Shame really, it might wake up a few more people.

There again, maybe I'm just too damn optimistic.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. I'm guessing people who read Nature have figured it out

But it got the mainstream media to pull thier thumbs out of thier arses, I'd be also for it.

Maybe they should interview Lindsey Lohan about thermohaline circulation? :shrug:

[Systematic Chaos]

3. So... water of about 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit

Is making it to within 500 miles of the pole?

Yup, we is fucked.

[Delphinus]

7. Now that's a number I can relate to!

And, yes, Gentle Giant, I agree with your assessment.