Sentences with phrase «thick floes»

(Keep in mind that almost all Arctic sea ice researchers add a big caveat when talking of an «ice - free Arctic Ocean,» noting that a big region of thick floes north and west of Greenland will almost surely persist in summers through this century, which is one reason some scientists have proposed targeting polar bear conservation efforts there.)

That approach is being promoted by a team of climate scientists and biologists, led by Stephanie Pfirman of Barnard College, who have proposed that Arctic nations develop a conservation plan creating a «sea ice refuge» from northwest Greenland west into Canada's Arctic archipelago where thick floes routinely persist through the summer, and are expected to persist through this century.

These thick floes will then be followed by thin ice, which melts faster in the summer.

Scientists have explained Sputnik Planitia's youthful appearance by positing that it is an ancient impact basin — a giant crater filled with thick floes of younger ice that, driven by heat seeping up from below, churn and refresh the surface.

Not exact matches

While shippers have for centuries dreamed of sending cargo over the top of the world --- a huge shortcut compared to other long - distance sea routes — Pablo Clemente - Colón, the chief scientist at the National Ice Center, said the open water in the passages over Russia, particularly, remains clotted with thick dangerous floes and also can close up in a matter of hours.

One way or the other, it's clear that, by the end of the 1990s, the veneer of ice on the Arctic Ocean had shifted to a far more tenuous state, with ever less thick, years - old ice like the floes I camped on when I went with the team setting up the annual North Pole Environmental Observatory.

You can also hear the amazing chugging, huffing, crunching sounds that the thick Arctic sea ice makes as floes drift and collide on our site here.

The fate of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is determined by a complicated mix of factors, including the pressure changes, with the biggest loss of old thick ice resulting more from a great «flush» of floes than melting, Dr. Rigor and many other scientists tracking the region say.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center released its summary of summer sea - ice conditions in the Arctic on Tuesday, noting a substantial expansion of the extent of «second - year ice» — floes thick enough to have persisted through two summers of melting.

However, isolated multiyear floes were also observed that were little thicker than the first year ice surrounding them.

Just a few years ago Polarstern had to navigate up to three meter thick ice floes in this area.

Increase wave action, especially when there's no thick ice to dampen the waves, flooding floes with saltier water that melts the ice, but can also temporarily fool satellite sensors into thinking there's open water.

However, we found many floes with modal ice thicknesses between 0.9 and 2.0 m, which is similar to or thicker than what was observed last summer even further north.

Strong winds blowing off the continent are pushing the giant floe away from its parent, the giant Pine Island Glacier, and the warming Southern Hemisphere's has melted the thick winter sea ice that held the block in place since July, said Grant Bigg, an ocean modeler at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

After a long search, Barber's ice breaker finally found a 16 - km (10 - mile) wide floe of multiyear ice that was around 6 to 8 meters (20 — 26 feet) thick.

Floes are more prone to converge, or bump into each other, and pile up into thick ridges.

The Skate's job is to see if it can be done when the Arctic winter is at its worst, with high winds pushing the floes into motion and the ice as thick as twenty - five feet.