Their latest modelling studies indicate
northern polar waters could be ice - free in summers within just 5 - 6 years.
Not exact matches
Too much of the
polar water, which is also less salty, and the Gulf Stream could be displaced to the south, removing the flow of
water that currently warms England and
Northern Europe....
It is not that the
polar regions are amplifying the warming «going on» at lower latitudes, it is that any warming going on AT THE POLES is amplified through inherent positive feedback processes AT THE POLES, and specifically this is primarily the ice - albedo positive feedback process whereby more open
water leads to more warming leads to more open
water, etc. *** «Climate model simulations have shown that ice albedo feedbacks associated with variations in snow and sea - ice coverage are a key factor in positive feedback mechanisms which amplify climate change at high
northern latitudes...»
Most interesting is that the about monthly variations correlate with the lunar phases (peak on full moon) The Helsinki Background measurements 1935 The first background measurements in history; sampling data in vertical profile every 50 - 100m up to 1,5 km; 364 ppm underthe clouds and above Haldane measurements at the Scottish coast 370 ppmCO2 in winds from the sea; 355 ppm in air from the land Wattenberg measurements in the southern Atlantic ocean 1925-1927 310 sampling stations along the latitudes of the southern Atlantic oceans and parts of the
northern; measuring all oceanographic data and CO2 in air over the sea; high ocean outgassing crossing the warm
water currents north (> ~ 360 ppm) Buchs measurements in the
northern Atlantic ocean 1932 - 1936 sampling CO2 over sea surface in
northern Atlantic Ocean up to the
polar circle (Greenland, Iceland, Spitsbergen, Barents Sea); measuring also high CO2 near Spitsbergen (Spitsbergen current, North Cape current) 364 ppm and CO2 over sea crossing the Atlantic from Kopenhagen to Newyork and back (Brements on a swedish island Lundegards CO2 sampling on swedish island (Kattegatt) in summer from 1920 - 1926; rising CO2 concentration (+7 ppm) in the 20s; ~ 328 ppm yearly average
The schematic below from Mangerud and Svendsen shows the warm
water incursions from the Atlantic flowing past the west coast of Svalbard at about 11 thousand years ago, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet still covered the eastern half of Canada and the
northern US, excluding fish, seals and
polar bears from most of Canadian Arctic and Hudson Bay.
The heat arrives from the Atlantic Ocean that moves warm
water along
northern Norway and western Spitsbergen where the ocean is ice - free despite freezing air temperatures even during the months of total darkness during the
polar night.
For example, reductions in seasonal sea ice cover and higher surface temperatures may open up new habitat in
polar regions for some important fish species, such as cod, herring, and pollock.128 However, continued presence of cold bottom -
water temperatures on the Alaskan continental shelf could limit northward migration into the
northern Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska.129, 130 In addition, warming may cause reductions in the abundance of some species, such as pollock, in their current ranges in the Bering Sea131and reduce the health of juvenile sockeye salmon, potentially resulting in decreased overwinter survival.132 If ocean warming continues, it is unlikely that current fishing pressure on pollock can be sustained.133 Higher temperatures are also likely to increase the frequency of early Chinook salmon migrations, making management of the fishery by multiple user groups more challenging.134
In the
northern polar regions, where
water and land are interspersed, the
polar easterlies give way in summer to variable winds.
Given that the
northern polar region is dominated by
water, whereas the southern
polar region is dominated by land, one would expect a greater temperature response to changes in ice extent in the Arctic than Antarctica.
The basic thermohaline circulation is one of sinking of cold
water in the
polar regions, chiefly in the
northern North Atlantic and near Antarctica.