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Warm winter also in the Arctic
March 30, 2007Central Europe is not the only place where the past, warm winter has caused record temperatures. Unusually mild temperatures also prevented ice formation in the Arctic, specifically in the region around Spitsbergen. This is the conclusion drawn by scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). Both institutes are members of the Helmholtz Association of German research centres. They aim to span the Helmholtz-network to observe environmental changes. Measurement activities of the recent expedition were part of the project ICESAR, and accomplished in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).
Arctic sea ice plays an important role in climate change. The decline of average sea ice cover, observed over the past years, means that sea ice reflects progressively less solar energy back into space, causing temperatures in the Arctic to rise further. Usually, large areas of Spitsbergen are surrounded by ice at the end of the winter, and the fjords are frozen. "This year, our aircraft had to fly all the way to the limits of their range in order to collect sufficient data above the sea ice", explains Dr Jörg Hartmann, climate scientist at the Alfred Wegener Institute. The recently published UN climate report highlights warming of the Arctic as one of the four key issues in relation to global climate change.
The goals of ICESAR include improvements of sea ice observations facilitated by satellite radar, as well as better predictions for weather and climate models. The research campaign provided data for the technical alignment of ESA satellite Sentinel 1, because one of its radar systems will take up observation of Arctic ice cover in 2011. The research aircraft Polar 2, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute, is equipped with various meteorological instruments and camera systems. During a recording flight, Polar 2 travels at low altitude while, simultaneously, another research aircraft of the DLR covers the same trajectory three kilometres higher, surveying the ice with an imaging radar system. The data collected by this method will provide the basis for a procedure using satellite images for ice data assembly.
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
Arctic Current Events and Arctic News RSSExperts: Failure to focus on farming will undermine global climate agreement and increase hunger
Alarmed by a substantial oversight in the global climate talks leading up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month, more than 60 of the world's most prominent agricultural scientists and leaders underscored how the almost total absence of agriculture in the agreement could lead to widespread famine and food shortages in the years ahead.
A bubbling ball of gas
The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing are the magnetic fields, the engines of it all.
Cave Study Links Climate Change to California Droughts
California experienced centuries-long droughts in the past 20,000 years that coincided with the thawing of ice caps in the Arctic.
Antarctica glacier retreat creates new carbon dioxide store
Large blooms of tiny marine plants called phytoplankton are flourishing in areas of open water left exposed by the recent and rapid melting of ice shelves and glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula.
DNA barcodes: Creative new uses span health, fraud, smuggling, history, more
The scientific ability to quickly and accurately identify species through DNA "barcoding" is being embraced and applied by a growing legion of global authorities - from medical and agricultural researchers to police and customs authorities to palaeontologists and others.
A special issue on the International Workshop of the 2008 Solar Total Eclipse
On August 1, 2008 a total solar eclipse was visible within a narrow corridor that traversed from North America to China.
Wolves, moose and biodiversity: An unexpected connection
Moose eat plants; wolves kill moose. What difference does this classic predator-prey interaction make to biodiversity?
Arctic Sediments Show That 20th Century Warming Is Unlike Natural Variation
The possibility that climate change might simply be a natural variation like others that have occurred throughout geologic time is dimming, according to evidence in a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published today.
Queen's scientists on international team discover 'ecologically unique' changes in Arctic lake
Queen's University biologists are part of an international research team whose discovery of a rare sediment core in a remote Arctic lake provides compelling evidence of unprecedented environmental changes occurring over the past few decades.
Arctic lake sediments show warming, unique ecological changes in recent decades
An analysis of sediment cores indicates that biological and chemical changes occurring at a remote Arctic lake are unprecedented over the past 200,000 years and likely are the result of human-caused climate change, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
More Arctic Current Events and Arctic News Articles
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The Last Imaginary Place: A Human History of the Arctic World by Robert McGhee (Author) The Arctic of towering icebergs and midnight sun, of flaming auroras and endless winter nights, has long provoked flights of the imagination. Now, in The Last Imaginary Place, renowned archeologist Robert McGhee lifts the veil to reveal the true Arctic world. Based on thirty years of work with native peoples of the Arctic and travel in the region, McGhee’s account dispels notions of the frozen land as an exotic, remote world that exists apart from civilization. |
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Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez (Author) Barry Lopez's National Book Award-winning classic study of the Far North is widely considered his masterpiece. Lopez offers a thorough examination of this obscure world-its terrain, its wildlife, its history of Eskimo natives and intrepid explorers who have arrived on their icy shores. But what turns this marvelous work of natural history into a breathtaking study of profound originality is his unique meditation on how the landscape can shape our imagination, desires, and dreams. Its prose as hauntingly pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is nothing less than an indelible classic of modern literature. |
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Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights by Debbie Miller (Author), Debbie S. Miller (Author), Jon Van Zyle (Illustrator) Imagine a land where the sun rises at 1:58 a.m. in the summer and shines for less than four hours on a winter’s day. The animals in the wilderness near Fairbanks, Alaska, witness some of the world’s greatest temperature extremes and light variations ever year. At an average low of -16 degrees Fahrenheit, the winters may be unpleasantly frigid, but the light shows are always glorious! |
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Over in the Arctic: Where the Cold Winds Blow (Sharing Nature with Children Books) by Marianne Berkes (Author), Jill Dubin (Illustrator) Over in the Arctic, the snow goose "honks" and the wolf "howls." Children too will joyfully honk and howl while they count the baby animals and sing to the tune of "Over in the Meadow." And the illustrations - all done in cut paper - vividly convey the dramatic landscape of the Arctic. This is the latest from bestselling children's book writer Marianne Berkes, author of Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef, Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme and Going Around the Sun: Some Planetary Fun. |
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Vanishing World: The Endangered Arctic by Fredrik Granath (Author), Mireille de la Lez (Photographer) Published to coincide with the International Polar Year, Vanishing World is an unprecedented visual record of life in the Arctic. Five years in the making, this book is both a celebration of the wildlife that inhabits this harsh and unforgiving climate and a cautionary tale of global warming. Rising temperatures have put areas such as the Artic at risk and the livelihoods of the animals that live there are increasingly threatened. Set against a dramatic landscape of ice floes and ragged mountains, readers will see the polar bears, foxes, seals, walruses, and reindeers who now struggle to live in this vulnerable climate. Images of a polar bear mother as she takes her newborns out for their first hunt, a seal pup only hours old, the spectacle of the polar night, and the majesty of... |
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Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound 3.5 Grams by Artic Silver Arctic Silver 5 premium thermal compound with 99.9% pure micronized silver is specifically designed to maximize the thermal conductivity between today's high-powered processors and high-performance cooling assemblies. Arctic Silver 5 uses three unique shapes and sizes of near-pure silver particles to maximize particle-to-particle contact area and thermal transfer. It can reduce CPU core temperatures by up to 50°F over standard silicone thermal pastes. Controlled triple phase viscosity allows Arctic Silver 5 to fill over time microscopic valleys and gaps in CPU and heatsink surfaces. One 3.5g tube can cover up to 25 CPU cores. |
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Living in the Arctic (Rookie Read-About Geography) by Allan Fowler (Author) The popular Rookie Books expand their horizons - to all corners of the globe! With this series all about geography, emergent readers will take off on adventures to cities, nations, waterways, and habitats around the world…and right in their own backyards. |
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Arctic Quest Boys 2-7 Ski Bib, Navy, 5/6 by Arctic Quest |
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NOVA: Arctic Passage Starring: Artist Not Provided In this two-hour mini-series, NOVA dramatizes two extraordinary sagas in the quest for the Northwest Passage, the legendary Arctic sea route between the Atlantic and the Pacific that was the prize objective of merchants and adventurers for centuries. |
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Amazing Arctic Animals (All Aboard Science Reader) by Jackie Glassman (Author), Lisa Bonforte (Illustrator) Why does an Arctic hare have tiny ears? To conserve heat! How does a walrus feel around for food on the bottom of the sea? With its whiskers! Learn cool facts about the arctic fox, the beluga whale, the snowy owl, and more in this book. |
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