Most recent 40 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Polar
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Risk of conflict between humans and polar bears rises as Arctic melts - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 31) |
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Jul 31 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Every fall, tourists flock to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, the town on the Hudson Bay’s western coast known as the polar bear capital of the world. They come toting cameras with lenses as long as their arms, eager to join guided tours to areas where they will stand a good chance of spotting Ursus maritimus.
During bear season in late fall, polar bears congregate near Churchill, waiting for the bay to freeze over so they can hunt on the ice, mainly for seals. While waiting on land, their food options are limited. And with hungry polar bears in close ... Read more ...
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‘Climate whiplash’ is the new normal for California, experts say - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jun 05, 2023) |
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Jun 05, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Summer is approaching in California, and warmer temperatures have been melting the massive snowpack dumped on the state over the winter. Several swimmers and kayakers drowned this spring as rivers flooded and raged. The National Park Service took the rare step of closing much of Yosemite National Park’s scenic valley for several days to protect hikers and campers from floods. In April, California snowpack was at 237% of the average.
After years of drought, a string of storms over the winter and into the spring dropped as much as 700 inches of snow ... Read more ...
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15 million people at risk globally from glacial lake dam bursts, study finds - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (May 15, 2023) |
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May 15, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
As mountain glaciers melt, they create high-altitude lakes, dammed by rocks or ice. If pressure builds or landslides or ice avalanches occur, that natural dam can break.
Water and debris can then rush down the mountainsides - devastating communities.
Tom Robinson is a senior lecturer in disaster risk and resilience at the University of Canterbury. He says global warming is causing glaciers to melt faster.
“And so there’s more and more water going into these lakes,” he says.
And that water can flood communities. In a recent ... Read more ...
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Massive wildfires are taking a toll on Western snowpack, research finds - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Apr 05, 2023) |
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Apr 05, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The three biggest wildfires in Colorado’s recorded history roared through the state during one year in 2020, burning more than a half million acres of forests. The Cameron Peak Fire raged for close to four months, encompassing more than 208,000 acres. The East Troublesome covered 193,000 acres and the Pine Gulch fire 139,000.
Blackened trees, bare ground, and thick ash scar the landscape long after the last flames are extinguished, evidence of the lasting ways wildfires alter ecosystems and communities. Although fire is a natural part of ecosystems, ... Read more ...
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Warming winters put Indigenous moose hunting traditions in jeopardy - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Feb 23, 2023) |
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Feb 23, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Moose have long been at the heart of Indigenous Ojibwe culture. And in much of northern Minnesota, hunting moose for their meat and hides is protected by treaty rights.
But climate change and other environmental threats could put this tradition in jeopardy.
Tyler Kaspar is an environmental biologist with the 1854 Treaty Authority, an intertribal natural resource management agency.
He says as the climate warms, a species known as the winter tick is thriving and attacking moose in greater numbers.
“With decreased snowpack, there’s ... Read more ...
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Can EVs meet the needs of rural drivers? Increasingly, the answer is yes. - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jan 27, 2023) |
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Jan 27, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
Vermont has more miles of dirt roads than paved roads, and driving in winter can be treacherous.
“In Vermont, we see a lot of consumer interest in all-wheel-drive vehicles and vehicles that they feel confident can handle the various driving conditions you might find in a rural place with dirt roads,” says Nick Neverisky of VEIC.
The nonprofit implements an energy-saving program called Efficiency Vermont.
His team surveyed vehicle owners in the state. Three out of four said the ability to handle dirt roads and winter driving conditions is key. And a vehicle’s safety and reliability ranked as higher priorities than fuel efficiency or ... Read more ...
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Tree thinning in dense forests could bolster Western snowpack, researchers suggest - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jan 25, 2023) |
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Jan 25, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
In the Pacific Northwest, melting mountain snowpack slowly runs off into streams and rivers, providing water for the region through spring and summer.
But as the climate warms, snowpack is declining. And it often melts quickly in the spring, leaving less water available in the dry summer months.
Rowan Braybrook is with the nonprofit Northwest Natural Resource Group. Her group is studying ways to increase and prolong snowpack.
“In really dense forests where the canopy is almost continuous, the snow can’t get at the ground very readily,” she says. “And it melts on those darker tree leaves or pine needles.”
So in part of a ... Read more ...
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Climate change means warmer winters - but not the end of snowstorms - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jan 20, 2023) |
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Jan 20, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections
It’s easy to understand the links between a warming global atmosphere and summertime heat waves. But the connections to winter weather are less simple.
There’s no doubt that, overall, our winters are warming. NPR has this overview of how balmier winter temperatures are affecting each U.S. region.
Is global warming bringing us more snow or less snow? Yes, both, it depends.
What about those cold spells that reach far into the U.S. South? Are they somehow caused by extra CO2 in the atmosphere? This question is a matter of intense, ongoing scientific debate.
SueEllen Campbell created and for over a decade curated the website "100 ... Read more ...
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How climate change influences 'lake-effect’ snow - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 23, 2022) |
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Dec 23, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
In the Great Lakes region, a forecast of lake-effect snow can mean several feet of the white stuff.
When cold air blows over warm, open lake water, the water evaporates. And when it’s cold enough, that moisture can fall as snow.
“So in November, December, January, you see very large lake-effect events,” says Ricky Rood of the University of Michigan. “And that’s because you have air that is cold enough to snow and you still have the water being warm. Once the water freezes over, then the evaporation is largely reduced and then there’s a reduction of lake-effect snow.”
Rood says that as the climate changes, the lakes are getting warmer ... Read more ...
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What on Earth is a polar vortex? And what’s global warming got to do with it? - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 21, 2022) |
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Dec 21, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
It’s that time again.
An influx of Arctic air is blasting across the U.S., sending temperatures plunging, dropping snow, disrupting Christmas travel plans, and setting social media atwitter about the polar vortex.
But what exactly is the polar vortex? Where does the cold air come from? And is global warming making cold snaps like this one more likely? Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Bob Henson has answers.
This interview has been lightly edited.
Yale Climate Connections: Could you start by defining the polar vortex?
Bob Henson: When you hear the phrase “polar vortex,” it’s usually referring to the North Pole and ... Read more ...
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Warmer, more volatile winters limit lake ice skating opportunities in Vermont - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Nov 25, 2022) |
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Nov 25, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
In the winter, visitors head to Lake Morey in Vermont to lace up ice skates and glide along a four-mile skating track on the frozen lake.
But warming temperatures and volatile weather can disrupt those plans.
Sarah Howe is with Lake Morey resort, which plows and maintains the skating trail.
“Particularly this last winter was the most difficult winter for us to maintain our trail,” she says. “Every storm that came through our area was fluctuating in temperature, wildly. So you may start with heavy snow, very, very cold … and then all of a sudden change to rain.”
Or, she says, a storm would start with rain and switch to snow, ... Read more ...
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Olympic cross-country skier Gus Schumacher pushes Congress to act on climate - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Nov 17, 2022) |
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Nov 17, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Cross-country skier Gus Schumacher has been gliding across the snow almost as long as he’s been able to walk. He began skiing as a child in Alaska. Now 22, he’s part of the U.S. ski team and a Beijing Olympian.
But Schumacher worries about the future of his sport. He says global warming is making snow conditions more unpredictable.
“Nowadays, we have to use different courses and maybe even entirely different venues because of a lack of snow in some places,” he says.
So he’s using his status as an Olympian to push for climate action. As a member of the Protect Our Winters Athlete Alliance, Schumacher recently traveled to Capitol Hill. ... Read more ...
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Shrinking Himalayan glaciers spell trouble downstream - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Oct 31, 2022) |
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Oct 31, 2022 · Join the Yale Center for Environmental Communication for a webinar on November 4, at 12 p.m. EDT. Panelists will discuss the health and community impacts of more frequent and large wildfires. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Kai Chen, Yale School of Public Health.
Yale Climate Connections
Melting glaciers in the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalaya mountains, combined with record-breaking monsoons, fed extreme flooding this year that killed over a thousand people, created a public health crisis and left a third of the country underwater. Pakistan’s climate change minister tweeted videos of the destruction and blamed “high global temperatures.”
In Nepal, a ... Read more ...
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Scientists probe newly discovered methane emissions - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Oct 27, 2022) |
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Oct 27, 2022 · Join the Yale Center for Environmental Communication for a webinar on November 4, at 12 p.m. EDT. Panelists will discuss the health and community impacts of more frequent and large wildfires. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Kai Chen, Yale School of Public Health.
Yale Climate Connections
Yale Climate Connections regular video contributor Peter Sinclair reports on his summer of 2022 field trip to Greenland with three Czech and one American climate scientist. Their goal: to explore a newly identified natural process allowing escape of methane, a powerful climate pollutant, to the atmosphere from rapidly melting ice sheets.
And the riddle they hope to ... Read more ...
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Video probes methane emissions from Siberian sinkholes - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Aug 23, 2022) |
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Aug 23, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Scientists are exploring the whats and what-ifs involving natural methane releases from newly discovered unusual sink holes in remote areas of the Siberian arctic.
They’re unclear, in part, about whether the sink holes are in fact “new” or merely newly discovered. They’re trying to come to grips also with the potential range of high- and low-end impacts on global climate change given the strength of methane as a climate pollutant. And they point to remaining uncertainties about the frequency and intensity of the sinkholes going forward in a warming climate.
Independent videographer Peter Sinclair, in his current exclusive video for Yale ... Read more ...
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Remote sensing helps in monitoring arctic vegetation for climate clues - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Aug 19, 2022) |
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Aug 19, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Beneath the arctic tundra, a massive reservoir of carbon lies locked in frozen peat. Scientists are using remote sensing tools to keep an eye on that tundra from afar, monitoring it for changes that may provide insight about climate change.
Climate change is causing the Arctic to heat rapidly, warming its permafrost and releasing heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere.
“When the material thaws, it is a major concern,” said Peter Nelson, forest ecology director at the Schoodic Institute at Acadia National Park in Maine. Nelson is among the scientists studying the region via remote sensing.
Monitoring vegetation ... Read more ...
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Global warming puts emperor penguins on thin ice - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Aug 03, 2022) |
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Aug 03, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Emperor penguins endure Antarctica’s extreme cold and biting winds. But global warming may prove too much for these tough birds to handle.
Stephanie Jenouvrier of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution says emperor penguins need a stable platform of sea ice to raise chicks. But they also need openings in the sea ice where they can feed.
As the climate warms, sea ice is declining in many parts of Antarctica.
In a recent study, Jenouvrier found that if carbon pollution continues rising at current rates, emperor penguin colonies will be at risk of extinction.
“Ninety-eight percent of the colony will have disappeared by the end of ... Read more ...
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How this month produced a mind-boggling warm-up in eastern Antarctica (and the Arctic) - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Mar 23, 2022) |
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Mar 23, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
The bloodless term “anomaly” doesn’t do justice to the stupendous temperature departures seen across parts of both the Antarctic and Arctic in mid-March 2022. With the initial shock now behind them, scientists are taking stock of exactly what happened and what it might portend.
The observations from both polar regions – especially the Antarctic – would be almost laughable if they weren’t so unsettling. Even as some of the scientists working in these remote areas shared humorous takes on the bizarre warm-ups, one could find plenty of angst, as temperatures in the Antarctic soared to levels that were in some cases virtually unthinkable just a few ... Read more ...
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Montana fly-fishing guide sees effects of melting glaciers firsthand - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Mar 15, 2022) |
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Mar 15, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Fly-fishing guide Hilary Hutcheson grew up fishing and rafting in northern Montana, in the cold mountain rivers and streams near Glacier National Park.
“It’s this wonderful place full of a lot of great water,” she says.
But as the climate warms, shrinking glaciers and declining snowpack are reducing the flow of meltwater into those rivers and streams.
About 50 years ago, there were 35 named glaciers in the national park. When Hutcheson started her career in the 90s, about 30 glaciers remained.
“And now … the USGS is saying about two dozen,” she says. “So significant change over the time that I’ve been guiding and kind of a weird ... Read more ...
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As glaciers melt, some of Canada’s alpine lakes lose their turquoise hue - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Feb 04, 2022) |
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Feb 04, 2022 · Yale Climate Connections
Hikers who venture high into the mountains are sometimes rewarded with a view of sparkling turquoise alpine lakes.
These vibrant hues are made possible by glaciers. As glaciers erode, they grind down the rock below them, creating a fine sediment that’s commonly called rock flour.
“So the turquoise-ish appearance of those alpine lakes comes from the eroded rock material that pours into them from melting glaciers,” says Rolf Vinebrooke of the University of Alberta.
Vinebrook studies alpine lakes in Canada. He says as the climate warms and glaciers melt away, the lakes’ source of rock flour disappears.
As a result, many lakes that ... Read more ...
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More ships are crossing the Arctic, worrying many local Indigenous people - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Oct 07, 2021) |
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Oct 07, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
In February, a Russian tanker made its way from China to a Russian gas plant, through the Arctic Ocean.
It was the first time a ship sailed the Northern Sea Route at that time of year. In the past, thick ice made the journey impossible. But as the climate warms, the sea ice is melting.
Dalee Sambo Dorough of the Inuit Circumpolar Council says many Indigenous people in the region are worried.
“The open water … is now seen as an opportunity by more powerful forces that are looking for the fastest route across oceans in order to deliver their commodities,” she says.
She says ship traffic could pollute Arctic waters, and harm ... Read more ...
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Key articles addressing range of changes in 'New Arctic’ - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 20, 2021) |
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Jul 20, 2021 · Yale Climate Connections
The story of climate change in the Far North is both obvious and complex: More CO2 in the air means warmer air and land, thus melting ice and thawing earth, thus more vicious feedback circles leading to more melting and all kinds of other changes to the land and its inhabitants. A new part of the story is just how quickly these changes are occurring, several decades sooner than scientists expected, so much so that some experts now speak of the “New Arctic” – a place that is fast becoming significantly different from the Arctic of most of human history. These well-done pieces can bring you up to date on some of these major changes.
Let’s start ... Read more ...
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How long might the Arctic’s ‘Last Ice’ area endure? - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jan 28, 2021) |
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Jan 28, 2021 · Picture a logjam made of ice. And a bottleneck.
The large blocks of ice dam up a narrow passage. And prevent other large blocks of ice from passing through, while allowing smaller ones passage.
The longer that ice stays in place, the less time the ice upstream has to proceed southward.
That sums up the real-life situation on the upper edges of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland, home to the world’s oldest and thickest sea ice. Canada in 2019 designated the area the Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area. To scientists and others it’s simply called “the Last Ice area.”
The story of that critical ice – critical because of ... Read more ...
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Ice fishing: Warmer winters create new risks for a cherished Minnesota pastime - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jan 25, 2021) |
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Jan 25, 2021 · In Minnesota, ice fishing is a cherished pastime. Every winter, friends and families set up ice fishing shacks, drill a hole in the ice, and gather around small fires while they wait for a tug on their lines.
“It’s quite remarkable how connected many people are with the environment here in the winter,” says Lesley Knoll of the University of Minnesota.
As winters warm, lakes often freeze later, and the ice can be thin or unstable, so fishing on that ice can be dangerous.
Knoll’s research found that when temperatures are higher than about 25 degrees Fahrenheit, ice fishing tournaments are more likely to be called off.
For example, the ... Read more ...
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Mobile app helps Inuit hunters monitor ice conditions - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 30, 2020) |
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Dec 30, 2020 · Hunting for seals and other animals has long been a part of Inuit culture. But today, when hunters head out onto the sea ice, they can use modern technology to stay safe.
“With climate change, it’s becoming difficult to predict how the ice will form each year,” says Mick Appaqaq of Sanikiluaq, a small community on an island in Canada’s Hudson Bay. “Last winter is a really good example because the sea ice didn’t form as well as it used to. … There were some areas that were really thin, which were dangerous to cross.”
Appaqaq works for the Arctic Eider Society. The organization developed a mobile app for Inuit hunters. ... Read more ...
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Reindeer deaths linked to increasingly erratic Arctic weather - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 18, 2020) |
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Dec 18, 2020 · Reindeer do not survive on the carrots left out by excited children on Christmas Eve.
During winter in the Arctic, reindeer eat lichens and plants they find beneath the snow. But erratic winter weather can make it hard for them to get to their food.
“We might get a snowfall in October, but then it will rain, and then it will freeze, and then it might snow again, and then it might rain again, and then freeze again, and … then the lichen and other winter fodder will be encased in ice,” says Bruce Forbes of the University of Lapland in Finland.
This alternating rain and snow is not unusual. But he says that as the climate warms, “what’s ... Read more ...
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Winter sports enthusiasts call for action on climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 18, 2020) |
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Dec 18, 2020 · People who love winter sports like skiing and snowboarding know there’s something special about being out in the cold.
“We find things in deep winter or at high altitude elevations that we don’t find anywhere else, that speak very directly to our connection to nature and to the human soul, really,” says Mario Molina, executive director of the nonprofit Protect Our Winters.
He says people who enjoy winter sports want to preserve this experience for future generations.
“They want to pass those sports on to their kids and their grandkids,” Molina says.
But global warming is causing warmer winters and more precipitation to fall ... Read more ...
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November 2020 among warmest Novembers on record, NOAA and NASA report - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 14, 2020) |
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Dec 14, 2020 · November 2020 was the second warmest November since global record keeping began in 1880, behind the record set in 2015, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, NCEI, reported December 14.
NASA rated the month as the warmest November on record, as did the European Copernicus Climate Change Service. The Japan Meteorological Agency rated it as the second-warmest. Minor differences in rankings often occur among various research groups, the result of different ways they handle data-sparse regions such as the Arctic.
For the period September-October-November, the Northern Hemisphere had its second warmest autumn, only 0.01°C (0.02°F) behind the record set ... Read more ...
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NOAA report card: Arctic is having more and more warming difficulties - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Dec 10, 2020) |
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Dec 10, 2020 · Each December since 2006, NOAA has pulled together Arctic experts to summarize the state of the high-latitude environment in the context of relentless human-caused warming. This year’s 15th annual Arctic Report Card doesn’t exactly give the region a failing grade, but it does stress that high northern latitudes are on a dangerous track.
Released on Tuesday, December 8, as part of the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (in this year of COVID, a remote meeting), the report portrays an Arctic that continues to get less cold, less icy, and less reliable.
One telling example: In October 1988, the United States and Russia teamed up to rescue ... Read more ...
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Can shearing of Thwaites glacier slow or stop if humans control greenhouse gas emissions? - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Nov 20, 2020) |
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Nov 20, 2020 · Here’s the take-home message from this month’s original video by independent videographer Peter Sinclair for Yale Climate Connections:
Let’s hope Thwaites in Antarctica waits. Waits patiently, quietly, and long-term, perhaps even indefinitely.
And here’s a moral of this Thwaites video, adapted freely from Las Vegas tourism interests: What happens in Antarctica, and in particular in this instance at Thwaites, doesn’t stay in Antarctica. Not by a long shot.
The video addresses fairly widespread concerns and misunderstandings not about ongoing loss of Antarctic ice at Thwaites and Pine Island, but rather about whether that loss has become ... Read more ...
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Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier on the cultural value of ice and snow - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Nov 20, 2020) |
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Nov 20, 2020 · Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier grew up in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. Until she was 10, she traveled only by dog sled.
“And so we were very much connected to the ice, the snow, and the cold,” she says.
In her book “The Right to Be Cold,” Watt-Cloutier explains how global warming threatens this traditional lifestyle.
She says hunting and fishing are important parts of Inuit culture. But as Arctic sea ice weakens, hunting for seals and other animals is becoming more dangerous.
“We have loss of lives, in fact, and loss of sleds and snowmobiles through that thinning ice,” Watt-Cloutier says.
She says ... Read more ...
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Arctic wildfires are lasting longer and burning more intensely - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Nov 12, 2020) |
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Nov 12, 2020 · The Arctic is known for cold and snowy winters. But in summer, wildfires can rage across the tundra.
“Fire is not something that we are surprised to see in the Arctic. What we’re surprised to see is how much there is in the past two years,” says Jessica McCarty, assistant professor of geography and director of the Geospatial Analysis Center at Miami University in Ohio.
“We’re seeing fires start sooner,” she says, “lasting longer, burning more intense, and appear to be burning in ecosystems that previously we thought were fire-resistant.”
As these fires get bigger, so does the amount of global warming pollution they ... Read more ...
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‘Zombie fires’ a growing risk in the warming Arctic - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Oct 24, 2020) |
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Oct 24, 2020 · During warm months, wildfires can burn across Arctic tundra. When fall arrives, cooler, wetter weather usually helps extinguish the fires. But some only appear to be gone. Despite the blanket of winter snow, they reemerge in spring – returning to life like zombies.
Jessica McCarty is director of the Geospatial Analysis Center at Miami University in Ohio.
She says a zombie fire can occur when wildfire burns in peatlands, areas that are covered with a carbon-rich layer of dead plants. The fire gets so hot that it burrows down into the peat and moves underground, even after the surface fire is extinguished.
“So that when spring melt occurs, it dries out ... Read more ...
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Bleak views of melting Antarctic ice, from above and below - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Oct 06, 2020) |
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Oct 06, 2020 · Images from satellites high above the Earth have helped a research team put together a stark visual chronicle of decades of glacier disintegration in Antarctica. Meanwhile, a separate international research team has taken the opposite perspective – studying the ice from its underbelly. Both teams are documenting the stress on two glaciers in West Antarctica that so far have helped check a massive stream of melting ice responsible for about 5 percent of Earth’s rising sea levels.
Climate researchers have long monitored ice sheet dynamics in the Amundsen Sea, focusing specifically on the Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers. The two sit side by side on ... Read more ...
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Scientists seek to collect ice core samples before glaciers and ice sheets melt - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Aug 12, 2020) |
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Aug 12, 2020 · Scientists are rushing to sample the cores of rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets, hoping to preserve a rich record of changes in Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere over the eons. Ice cores contain evidence of trace elements, gas bubbles, dust, pollen, even viruses and bacteria that can be traced back in time to yield vivid images of Earth’s history and prehistory for those who learn to read them.
“Just about anything that’s in the atmosphere gets recorded in the ice,” says Lonnie Thompson, glaciologist and paleoclimatologist at Ohio State University. Thompson has led more than 60 expeditions to sample ice cores from glaciers and ice sheets in a ... Read more ...
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Baked by midsummer sun, Arctic sea ice could face worst losses on record - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 22, 2020) |
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Jul 22, 2020 · Relentless high pressure and cloud-free skies have allowed the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice to plummet to its lowest mid-July extent on record. The persistent pattern sets the stage for what could be unprecedented losses by September – a long-feared next step in the Arctic’s erratic, climate-change–fueled lurch toward a potential “blue ocean” mode.
Early July brought “just the pattern you’d like to see if you’d like to get rid of ice,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. What happens later this summer will hinge in part on whether an entirely different, tough-to-predict ice-destroying mechanism ... Read more ...
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Baked by midsummer sun, Arctic sea ice could face worst losses on record - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 20, 2020) |
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Jul 20, 2020 · Relentless high pressure and cloud-free skies have allowed the Arctic Ocean’s sea ice to plummet to its lowest mid-July extent on record. The persistent pattern sets the stage for what could be unprecedented losses by September – a long-feared next step in the Arctic’s erratic, climate-change–fueled lurch toward a potential “blue ocean” mode.
Early July brought “just the pattern you’d like to see if you’d like to get rid of ice,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. What happens later this summer will hinge in part on whether an entirely different, tough-to-predict ice-destroying mechanism ... Read more ...
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Hearing the under-sea whispers of a warming climate - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 13, 2020) |
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Jul 13, 2020 · Melting and crumbling glaciers are largely responsible for rising sea levels, so learning more about how glaciers shrink is vital to those who hope to save coastal cities and preserve wildlife.
But it is hard to get good pictures and measurements because glaciers typically are in remote, difficult-to-reach, and even dangerous locations. Satellites are often used to measure glacial retreat, but these images are far from complete, especially when it’s cloudy, foggy, raining, or snowing.
Oskar Glowacki already knew that melting glacial ice sounds like frying bacon. As ice bubbles burst, anyone nearby can hear crackling and popping, said Glowacki, a postdoctoral ... Read more ...
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Hearing the under-sea whispers of a warming climate - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 13, 2020) |
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Jul 13, 2020 · Melting and crumbling glaciers are largely responsible for rising sea levels, so learning more about how glaciers shrink is vital to those who hope to save coastal cities and preserve wildlife.
But it is hard to get good pictures and measurements because glaciers typically are in remote, difficult-to-reach, and even dangerous locations. Satellites are often used to measure glacial retreat, but these images are far from complete, especially when it’s cloudy, foggy, raining, or snowing.
Oskar Glowacki already knew that melting glacial ice sounds like frying bacon. As ice bubbles burst, anyone nearby can hear crackling and popping, said Glowacki, a postdoctoral ... Read more ...
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Melting glaciers sound like frying bacon - Yale Climate Connections - Polar (Jul 10, 2020) |
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Jul 10, 2020 · As the climate warms, glaciers are melting – noisily.
“It sounds like bacon frying,” says Grant Deane of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “And you can hear it bubbling and cracking and popping as it melts.”
Deane’s team has been working in Svalbard, an archipelago north of Norway, to record the sounds of glaciers melting. He says those sounds contain a lot of information that can help scientists monitor the effects of global warming on glaciers.
Hearing the under-sea whispers of a warming climate
For example, glacial ice contains tiny air bubbles that burst when the ice melts. So researchers are analyzing the sounds ... Read more ...
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