Sentences with phrase «sea ice levels continue»

(08/20/2013) As sea ice levels continue to decline in the northern hemisphere, scientists are observing an unsettling trend in harp seal young mortalities regardless of juvenile fitness.

Not exact matches

Gore begins with hero scientists like Roger Revelle, who first began to imagine the magnitude of this tragedy, and continues through the latest scientific findings, like last fall's revelation that the ice over Greenland seems to be melting much faster than anyone had predicted — news that carries potentially cataclysmic implications for the rate of sea - level rise.

But as long as greenhouse gases continue to build up in the atmosphere unabated, the scales are heavily weighted toward more record heat, ever lower sea ice levels and ever higher seas.

A new study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and the University of California, Irvine, shows that while ice sheets and glaciers continue to melt, changes in weather and climate over the past decade have caused Earth's continents to soak up and store an extra 3.2 trillion tons of water in soils, lakes and underground aquifers, temporarily slowing the rate of sea level rise by about 20 percent.

If the trend continues, ice sheets could become the dominant contributor to sea level rise sooner than scientists had predicted, concludes the research, which will be published this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

But this year, a big spring meltdown in October and November suddenly reversed that trend and has led to continued record low sea ice levels as the summer melt season progressed.

The ice stream continued to recede from 16400 to 12300 years ago, controlled by global sea level rise.

«suggesting that Arctic warming will continue to greatly exceed the global average over the coming century, with concomitant reductions in terrestrial ice masses and, consequently, an increasing rate of sea level rise.»

Unless scientists have totally missed the mark with their understanding of the greenhouse effect, there is no doubt that continued expansion of our population, coupled with continued economic growth spurred on primarily by fossil fuels, is going to continue to warm the planet, melt ice, raise sea levels, etc. for a long time to come.

Does the pattern of change (warming raises the equilibrium temperature, cooling decreases it), indicate a negative feedback on sea level change (e.g. as land ice melts it requires a little warmer temperature to continue to melt further land ice... and vice versa??).

More ground turns from white reflective snow to black, heat absorbant dirt.The same effect occurs as sea ice is lost.The corals blanch, and, as I stated last year on this site, the shutdown of the north Atlantic current will occur, since the salinity level studies I spoke of last year, off Greenland, continue to show that the upwelling mechanisms driving the North Atlanic current are in severe jeapordy, because the change in salinity levels effects the driver of the current, the upwelling and downwelling of different salinity levels off Greenland.

There are some painful, and even dire, concerns expressed about the potential that Greenland ice sheets could be «entirely lost» if emissions continue at a business - as - usual pace; about the rate of sea - level rise increasing «faster and faster with time»; and about the planet's ice sheets likely becoming «more active» over coming decades than they have been over recent decades.

Excerpt: Livermore CA (SPX) Nov 01, 2005 If humans continue to use fossil fuels in a business as usual manner for the next several centuries, the polar ice caps will be depleted, ocean sea levels will rise by seven meters and median air temperatures will soar 14.5 degrees warmer than current day.

Even prior to any large feedback involving the ice sheets or carbon cycle, the actual rise in sea - level continues to be at the top edge of the envelope of the IPCC's predictions.

But Antarctica, will continue to feed ice into the sea for much longer - much of its ice - laden landscape is below sea - level, and the penetrating sea will keep eating into its ice - sheets long after the 21st century.

With global GHG emissions and concentrations continuing to increase; with climate change intensifying changes in ecosystems, ice sheet deterioration, and sea level rise; and with fossil fuels providing more than 80 % of the world's energy, the likelihood seems low that cooperative actions will prevent increasingly disruptive climate change over the next several decades.

While a 1 - meter rise in sea level will not happen overnight, what is worrisome is that if ice melting continues at today's rates, at some point such a rise in sea level will no longer be preventable.

It has come to the point that if we continue losing mass in those areas, the loss can generate a self - reinforcing feedback whereby we will be losing more and more ice, ultimately raising sea levels by tens of feet.»

If the melting rate continues to stay within those two points, and given that the current contribution to sea level from the Greenland Ice Sheet is only about 0.1 mm / year, we won't see a lot of sea level rise until later this century.

Arbetter, 4.7, Statistical A statistical model using regional observations of sea ice area and global NCEP air temperature, sea level pressure, and freezing degree day estimates continues the trend of projecting below - average summer sea ice conditions for the Arctic.

The carbon pollution we continue pumping into the atmosphere is already causing our air and oceans to warm, glaciers and ice sheets to melt, and sea levels to rise at alarming rates.

The northern melting will likely add to sea level rise explains lead author, Shfaqat Abbas Khan: «If this activity in northwest Greenland continues and really accelerates some of the major glaciers in the area — like the Humboldt Glacier and the Peterman Glacier — Greenland's total ice loss could easily be increased by an additional 50 to 100 cubic kilometers (12 to 24 cubic miles) within a few years.»

Shifting currents, increased freshwater input from melting sea ice and glaciers, and changes in upper and lower sea - level circulation patterns are already occurring, and they'll progress rapidly if anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission continues under a business - as - usual scenario.

Continue reading How do CO2 levels relate to ice ages and sea - level?

The Arctic's sea ice pack thawed to its third - lowest summer level on record, up slightly from the seasonal melt of the past two years but continuing an overall decline symptomatic of climate change, U.S. scientists said on Thursday.

If both Greenland and West Antarctica shed the entirety of their ice burden, global sea levels would rise by 12 to 14 m. Although these icecaps would not disintegrate within a century, the loss of even a third of their mass — quite plausible if the rate of polar ice loss continues to double each decade — would force up the oceans by at least 4 m, with disastrous socioeconomic and environmental consequences.

Qin Dahe, also co-chair of the working group, said: «As the ocean warm, and glaciers and ice sheets reduce, global mean sea level will continue to rise, but at a faster rate than we have experienced over the past 40 years.»

The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is projected to continue and to contribute to sea level rise after 2100.

This rate of sea level rise would continue for centuries, although it would probably be marked periodically by large surges in sea levels as various large chunks of the ice sheets disintegrated.

Although there is a general consensus among models that rising CO2 will drive warming and continued ice melt into the future, IPCC models failed to predict the current level of rapid sea ice reduction.

Sea level has been rising since the end of the last ice age and will continue to rise until the beginning of the next ice age.

Even if warming continues just linearly, our current understanding of the ice caps suggests accelerating sea level rise past the middle of this century.

The loss of the normal ocean circulation could cause drastic shifts in weather patterns, and continued loss of ice in Greenland will lead to the continued rise in sea level, threatening coastal cities around the globe.

Scientists are also confident that heating of the deep oceans and melting of land ice will lead to continued sea level rise, which will heighten the risk of coastal flooding and the severity of coastal hazards during stormy episodes.

Ice continues to melt, sea levels continue to rise, and the oceans continue to warm rapidly.

Still, the consensus of a stable low level of sea ice extent or continued modest sea ice loss is a strong result.

They conclude that while the rate of increase of average global surface temperatures has slowed since 1998, melting of Arctic ice, rising sea levels, and warming oceans have continued apace.

A major lesson of the 2012 Sea Ice Outlook is that all contributors and those with objective methods underestimated the sea ice reduction, yet did note a continuing low level sea ice extent relative to previous yeaSea Ice Outlook is that all contributors and those with objective methods underestimated the sea ice reduction, yet did note a continuing low level sea ice extent relative to previous yeaIce Outlook is that all contributors and those with objective methods underestimated the sea ice reduction, yet did note a continuing low level sea ice extent relative to previous yeasea ice reduction, yet did note a continuing low level sea ice extent relative to previous yeaice reduction, yet did note a continuing low level sea ice extent relative to previous yeasea ice extent relative to previous yeaice extent relative to previous years.

Global sea ice (Arctic plus Antarctic) continues to track at record low levels in the satellite record, but the deviation from average has moderated compared to what was observed in November.

Unusually warm conditions and record low daily sea ice extent levels continued through the end of the year.

(e.g. according to AR5 sea levels stayed flat during the little ice, meaning continued ice cap melt has opposed the ocean cooling and glacier advance elsewhere.)

If your model of modern civilisation is the Titanic, during and after its encounter with the fateful iceberg 100 years ago, then any apparent good news (Himalayan ice not melting, sea level rise not accelerating, mild winters not continuing, etc.) is not going to be considered very helpful.

Thus we expect to see continuing low levels of sea ice extent.

Rates of land ice melt continued to increase — providing a greater and greater fraction of overall global sea level rise.

My conclusion, based on the total information available, is that continued high emissions would result in multi-meter sea level rise this century and lock in continued ice sheet disintegration such that building cities or rebuilding cities on coast lines would become foolish.

Closed contours over the Pacific Arctic support a continued low sea level pressure in that region, similar to Figure 9, which is not supportive of rapid sea ice loss.

From the atmospheric temperature rise to the acidification of the sea, from ice thickness and extent to sea levels, we really need to continue to know what is going on.

But this year, a big spring meltdown in October and November suddenly reversed that trend and has led to continued record low sea ice levels as the summer melt season progressed.

But sea level rise would continue as yet more glaciers melted and the Greenland and Antarctic ice packs became less stable.

As the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets continue to shrink, sea levels will rise, threatening rice harvests around the globe.