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Polar Maritime

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    Arctic Ice Data And Stats.

    in Climate Change

    Posted

    Arctic continued warming in 2013

    Over the past few years, scientists and observers interested in the state of the Arctic Ocean have focused on one detail as a way of understanding how dire the situation had become; the abundance of sea ice.

    Sea ice volume has been the focal point for good reason; the ice has vanished at a startling rate over the past few years, thinning in some areas and melting completely in others.

    In 2013, there was more sea ice in the Arctic than in 2012. It was still the 6th lowest all time abundance of sea ice and of course one year does not make a trend, but the fact that there was more ice has motivated some to suggest that 2013 wasn’t as bad as previous years. This image shows, incredibly, that in fact in 2013 things got even worse in the Arctic despite the extra sea ice.

    When you heat a solid, it will warm up until it reaches its melting temperature. When ice melts, it holds at 0 degrees centigrade until all the ice is consumed. We call this “latent heat†or “heat of fusion†– that heat goes into melting the solid, but the temperature stays constant.

    Heat can either melt a solid like ice or it can turn into increasing temperature. In the Arctic, we’re used to looking at heat melting the ice…but what would it look like if the heat instead warmed up the waters of the Arctic Ocean? This is in fact exactly what happened in 2013; not as much ice melted but temperatures soared in the exposed waters.

    We’re in a truly new era in the Arctic. There is so much open water in the Arctic summer now that the Arctic can warm at the same time as sea ice expands because all the heat is taken up by the newly-exposed ocean.

    Sea ice in many areas of the Arctic melted especially early in 2013; those areas are pretty much all red in this plot. Dark red colors show places where the water temperatures were 5 degrees C or more above their average summer temperatures. Waters in these areas were as much as 3 degrees warmer than those same waters in 2012, the year with the lowest recorded sea ice extent. Only small areas were at lower-than-average temperatures, and those areas didn’t hit nearly the extremes recorded by the high temperatures.

    Scientists from NOAA did a set of calculations to determine the effect of these temperature increases and found that…in fact…there was more heat in the Arctic Ocean in the 2013 summer than the 2012 summer. 

     

    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82591
    http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/

    Despite the one year increase in ice…the Arctic still kept warming, the heat was just stuck in a place that a few years ago was locked under ice and couldn’t warm up.

     

    Posted Image

    • Like 1

    Scotland - Regional Discussion 16/12/2013 >

    in Regional

    Posted · Edited by Polar Maritime

    Hope people that are travelling up in the Highlands are prepared over the next 48hrs, many of the high routes will be impassable later today. Meaning they could be stuck for some considerable time, with blizzards and heavy snow forecast even down to low levels. With many travelling up there for Christmas not aware of the dangers.

    • Like 4

    Scotland - Regional Discussion 16/12/2013 >

    in Regional

    Posted

    Sleet here now, plenty of snow showers building to the west which is forecast for the next 2 days. Certainly feels alot cooler out there today, i slept through last night so no idea how strong the wind got..

    Plenty of snow on the moutains on Nevis range, can just make it out now its getting light.

    • Like 1

    Scotland - Regional Discussion 16/12/2013 >

    in Regional

    Posted · Edited by Polar Maritime

    A blustery morning here with heavy showers rattling through, an interesting 48 hrs coming up with severe gales and poss storm force winds overnight with snow to look forward to tommorow. Off for a drive to Applecross later, should make for an interesing drive ! Theres been more snow overnight on Nevis to..

    Heres a shot of the Caingorms yesterday.. sorry upside down.

    post-12319-0-10284900-1387355676_thumb.j

    • Like 7
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