Thursday, December 13, 2012

Thursday Links

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Arctic sea ice is thinner, yes, but ice growth has been faster than average during November and December this year (and last year). Arctic Sea Ice Extent is actually a bit higher than last season according to the latest figures (Dec 12th 2012).

See: nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Could this be the effect of weakening North Atlantic Current due to overall smaller ice extent?
And the higher ice growth partly counteracts the smaller ice extent?

Chris Reynolds said...

Unknown,

The rapid growth of ice is a consequence of the extreme low area/extent this year.

The newly opened ocean takes some time to lose enough heat for its surface to freeze. This heat contributes to massive warming in the autumn.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8497/8253443657_9045b94777_o.png
However once that heat is lost extent and area can rocket as thin ice rapidly grows across the ocean. Once the sun sets for the winter, as it does progressively moving away from the pole, heat loss is king.

The subduction locations where abyssal water is formed as surface water from the Gulf of Mexico plummets into the deeps, are around Greenland and Svalbard. They aren't playing a major role in the fate of most of the sea ice.

Lars-Eric Bjerke said...

Unknown,

The arctic ice growth rate in the autumn has increased year by year the last ten years for the reason that Chris Reynolds describes.
By the way, the difference between weather and climate is obvious today for us ice skaters on the west coast of Sweden. We have since a week been able to skate on the sea outside Gothenburg, which is unusual at this time of the year.

A Quaker in a Strange Land said...

Drones and database intrusions on our Rights and Freedoms are simply unintended consequences of over-funding government.