So tell me what ocean current is causing the melt cause it obviously couldn't be from the air or greenhouse gases? Still nothing from the $3 billion spent for Project Argo. Still nothing from the satellite Aqua data. If Reuters told you the war in Iraq was going great, would you post it here with positive comments? If Reuters told you a survey is out stating our president has a 48% approval, would you believe it? Funny how you place Reuters proudly on the front page here. MSM is okay if it helps you.
Posted by peter at March 31, 2008 08:22 PMThe changes we've seen in the Arctic sea ice, the shrinking summer extent and thinning (which is equivalent to losing the oldest ice classes) are the result of a set of processes working in concert to give the observed effect. It's not just the atmospheric warming but the combination of that initial forcing (atmospheric warming), changes in the state of the Northern Annular Mode of atmospheric variability, and positive (warming) feedbacks associated with thinning the sea ice and exposing more ocean surface. The atmospheric variability issue needs more explaining than I can do right now but if you are up for it, Clara Deser published a nice technical paper about this in Geophysical Research Letters earlier this year, which you can get to at her website here (the title begins Evolution of Arctic Sea Ice ...). I'm on travel most of this week and will try to write something up about it.
I've written a fair bit here about Arctic sea ice: northern exposure and faster than forecast.
Turkana:
The thing about global warming? It's global
I think I know what you mean by this but it is important to distinguish between "global warming," which simply means the higher the concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, the warmer the global mean temperature, and the climate changes forced by that warming. The climate changes are ultimately what we care about and they depend on a host of connected processes in the climate system.
Some changes are forced very simply by atmospheric warming but most are more complicated. Changes to specific mass balance on the surface of a glacier is a classic example: warmer atmosphere does more melting than a cooler atmosphere but it is also, by and large, moister, with the result of more snow at higher elevations. Depending on the degree of warming, that extra snow may or may not persist through the summer.
Posted by Christina at March 31, 2008 10:47 PMWe are all on this mudball together and someone wants to debate global warming? Haven't any of these numbnuts ever heard "better safe than sorry?"
Posted by joe at April 1, 2008 12:35 AMnext up from pants pissing peter: the Sun revolves around the Earth
Posted by Gay Veteran at April 1, 2008 12:28 PMFirst evidence of under-ice volcanic eruption in Antarctica
The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ago and remains active.
The volcano is located beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet in the Hudson Mountains at latitude 74.6 South, longitude 97 West.
The subglacial volcano has a volcanic explosion index of around 3-4. Heat from the volcano creates melt-water that lubricates the base of the ice sheet and increases the flow towards the sea.
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/press_releases/press_release.php?id=341
Posted by Dave at April 2, 2008 02:29 PMI believe that the oceans may be warming; this could be relevant.
Posted by boomerg'ma at April 2, 2008 04:31 PM