Mysterious Clouds Creeping Out of the Arctic

[waltky]

Arctic snowstorm costs China billions...

China banks loan $14B in snowstorm aid
5 May`08 - The snowstorms that began in January killed at least 107 people, wrecked crops; China's "big four" state-owned banks account for 59B yuan ($8.3B) of disaster loans; Xinhua: Nearly all storm-damaged power lines, transformer substations restored

Chinese banks have lent more than 102 billion yuan ($14.4 billion) to help rebuild areas battered by winter storms, a state news agency reported Thursday. The loans are aimed at restoring farms, transportation, power, phone service and other industries across China's south, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing information from government regulators.

The snowstorms that began in January killed at least 107 people and wrecked crops, killed 69 million farm animals, ripped down power lines and destroyed thousands of homes, according to the government. It has reported total damage at 111 billion yuan ($15.6 billion). Chinese regulators are trying to restrain a boom in credit, but eased loan curbs in storm-hit areas and ordered banks to lend more to help farmers and businesses recover. The central bank launched a disaster fund to help finance such lending.

China's "big four" top state-owned banks account for 59 billion yuan ($8.3 billion) of the disaster loans, Xinhua said. It gave no other details on where the loans were made or who received them. As of Tuesday evening, 92.4 percent of storm-damaged power lines and more than 97 percent of transformer substations had been restored to operation, according to Xinhua.

China banks loan $14B in snowstorm aid - CNN.com

[waltky]

Thickest, oldest Arctic ice is melting...

Thickest Arctic Ice Succumbs to Climate Change
Mar 18, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The thickest, oldest and toughest sea ice around the North Pole is melting, a bad sign for the future of the Arctic ice cap, NASA satellite data showed on Tuesday.

"Thickness is an indicator of long-term health of sea ice, and that's not looking good at the moment," Walt Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Center told reporters in a telephone briefing. This adds to the litany of disturbing news about Arctic sea ice, which has been retreating over the last three decades, especially last year, when it ebbed to its lowest level.

Scientists have said the trend is spurred by human-generated climate change. Melting Arctic ice does not raise sea levels as the melting of glaciers on Greenland or Antarctica could, but it does contribute to global warming when reflective white ice is replaced by dark water that absorbs the sun's heat.

Using satellites that measure how much ice covers water in the Arctic and Antarctic, Meier and other climate scientists found a steep drop in the amount of perennial ice -- the hardy, thick ice that is over a year old -- in the north. The oldest Arctic ice that has survived six years or more is the toughest, and even that shrank dramatically, Meier and the other scientists said.

OLD ICE "TOUGH AS NAILS"

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This should add to sea level rise...

Huge Piece of Antarctica Collapses
WASHINGTON Mar 25, 2008 - Global warming causes ice chunk seven times the size of Manhattan to collapse.

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk, scientists said Tuesday. Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica, which started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins ice shelf and has been there for hundreds, maybe 1,500 years. This is the result of global warming, said British Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan.

Because scientists noticed satellite images within hours, they diverted satellite cameras and even flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse for rare pictures and video. "It's an event we don't get to see very often," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo. "The cracks fill with water and slice off and topple... That gets to be a runaway situation." While icebergs naturally break away from the mainland, collapses like this are unusual but are happening more frequently in recent decades, Vaughan said. The collapse is similar to what happens to hardened glass when it is smashed with a hammer, he said.

The rest of the Wilkins ice shelf, which is about the size of Connecticut, is holding on by a narrow beam of thin ice. Scientists worry that it too may collapse. Larger, more dramatic ice collapses occurred in 2002 and 1995. Vaughan had predicted the Wilkins shelf would collapse about 15 years from now. The part that recently gave way makes up about 4 percent of the overall shelf, but it's an important part that can trigger further collapse. There's still a chance the rest of the ice shelf will survive until next year because this is the end of the Antarctic summer and colder weather is setting in, Vaughan said. Scientists said they are not concerned about a rise in sea level from the latest event, but say it's a sign of worsening global warming.

More ABC News: Huge Piece of Antarctica Collapses

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Antarctic ice 'hanging by thread'...

Massive ice shelf on verge of breakup
Wed March 26, 2008 - A large chunk of the Wilkins ice shelf in Antarctica broke away last month; Only a narrow strip of ice is protecting the shelf from further breakup; "I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly," scientist says; Ice shelves are floating ice sheets attached to the coast

Some 220 square miles of ice has collapsed in Antarctica and an ice shelf about seven times the size of Manhattan is "hanging by a thread," the British Antarctic Survey said Tuesday, blaming global warming. "We are in for a lot more events like this," said professor Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Scambos alerted the British Antarctic Survey after he noticed part of the Wilkins ice shelf disintegrating on February 28, when he was looking at NASA satellite images.

Late February marks the end of summer at the South Pole and is the time when such events are most likely, he said. "The amazing thing was, we saw it within hours of it beginning, in between the morning and the afternoon pictures of that day," Scambos said of the large chunk that broke away on February 28. The Wilkins ice shelf lost about 6 percent of its surface a decade ago, the British Antarctic Survey said in a statement on its Web site Another 220 square miles -- including the chunk that Scambos spotted -- had splintered from the ice shelf as of March 8, the group said.

"As of mid-March, only a narrow strip of shelf ice was protecting several thousand kilometers of potential further breakup," the group said. Scambos' center put the size of the threatened shelf at about 5,282 square miles, comparable to the state of Connecticut, or about half the area of Scotland.

More Massive ice shelf on verge of breakup - CNN.com

[waltky]

Now ya see it, now ya don't...

Greenland lake disappears under the ice
April 17, 2008 - We tend to think of glacial as a synonym for slow, but summer on an ice sheet can be pretty dynamic.

Lakes can form on ice sheets as melt water pools during warm summer days. These lakes decrease the albedo of the surface, leading to more melting. Once enough water collects, the pressure it creates can cause a fracture in the underlying (less dense) ice, allowing the lake to drain catastrophically. These events take on added significance due to what happens to that water. If the lake drains to the bottom of the ice sheet, it can lubricate the bed of the ice sheet, and thus increase rates of movement. That movement can lead to an increased flux of water into the ocean, thus raising sea levels.

A report in today's Science describes how researchers recorded the drainage of one such lake in Greenland. The lake was roughly 5.6 km2, but drained completely in less than an hour and a half. The lake's contents rapidly made their way down to the bottom of the ice sheet, 980 m below the surface. During this period, the average drainage rate was 8700 m3/s. For reference, the average flow rate for Niagara Falls is only 5700 m3/s. In the 16 hours prior to the catastrophic drainage, they noted a slow decrease in water level. They suggest that this corresponds to the slow initial fracturing of the ice. During this period, the lake was only filling the fracture it was creating. Once this fracture reached the base, the researchers believe that the water spread out in an existing subglacial network, which facilitated the rapid lake drainage.

Along with this drainage, the team recorded movement of the ice sheet (both vertically and horizontally), along with a corresponding increase in glacial seismic activity. As the lake drained, the ice sheet was temporarily lifted by a meter. As the water spread out at the base of the ice sheet, the surface elevation slowly decreased back to its initial level over the course of 24 hours. Along with this lifting came a very rapid shift north of almost one meter, followed by a slow drift back south and movement west of less than one meter. The fracture created by this lake remained on the surface as a conduit for future melt water. The team also noted that other post-drainage lake beds they came across exhibited the same type of fractures, suggesting that the process they recorded is quite common. Indeed, thousands of lakes are formed each summer season, and they must go somewhere.

A related study also published in Science today looked at the change in ice movement related to basal lubrication. The study found that, while the water lubricating the base of the ice sheet caused seasonal speedups of its motion on the order of 50 to 100 percent, the speedup of outlet glaciers, where the ice sheet drains into the ocean, was only about 15 percent. While other factors are causing outlet glaciers to speed up, lubrication of the base doesn't seem to be the main cause.

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[waltky]

Ice free arctic this year??...

North Pole Could Be Ice Free in 2008
April 27, 2008 - You know when climate change is biting hard when instead of a vast expanse of snow the North Pole is a vast expanse of water. This year, for the first time, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility.

"The set-up for this summer is disturbing," says Mark Serreze, of the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). A number of factors have this year led to most of the Arctic ice being thin and vulnerable as it enters its summer melting season. In September 2007, Arctic sea ice reached a record low, opening up the fabled North-West passage that runs from Greenland to Alaska.

The ice expanded again over the winter and in March 2008 covered a greater area than it had in March 2007. Although this was billed as good news in many media sources, the trend since 1978 is on the decline. Arctic ice at its maximum in March, but that maximum is declining by 44,000 km2 per year on average, the NSIDC has calculated. That corresponds to an area roughly twice the size of New Jersey.

What is more, the extent of the ice is only half the picture. Satellite images show that most of the Arctic ice at the moment is thin, young ice that has only been around since last autumn. Thin ice is far more vulnerable than thick ice that has piled up over several years.

Net Loss

[waltky]

Arctic ice startin' to break up...

Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice
Friday, 23 May 2008 : A Canadian research expedition finds dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap.

Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military. Scientists travelling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north. The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf. The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.

One of the expedition's scientists, Derek Mueller of Trent University, Ontario, told me: "I was astonished to see these new cracks. "It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away," Dr Mueller explained. According to another scientist on the expedition, Dr Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic.

"We're seeing very dramatic changes; from the retreat of the glaciers, to the melting of the sea ice. "We had 23% less (sea ice) last year than we've ever had, and what's happening to the ice shelves is part of that picture." When ice shelves break apart, they drift offshore into the ocean as "ice islands", transforming the very geography of the coastline.

Mission to Ayles Ice Island

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Methane rise points to wetlands
Friday, 23 May 2008 - Rising levels of the greenhouse gas methane could be caused by changes in wetlands, say scientists.

Higher atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas methane noted last year are probably related to emissions from wetlands, especially around the Arctic. Scientists have found indications that extra amounts of the gas in the Arctic region are of biological origin. Global levels of methane had been roughly stable for almost a decade.

Rising levels in the Arctic could mean that some of the methane stored away in permafrost is being released, which would have major climatic implications. The gas is about 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, though it survives for a shorter time in the atmosphere before being broken down by natural chemical processes.

Northern lights

Indications that methane levels might be rising after almost a decade of stability came last month, when the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) released a preliminary analysis of readings taken at monitoring stations worldwide.

More BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Methane rise points to wetlands

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Experts Worry About a Disturbing Trend at the North Pole...

Ice-Free Summer at the North Pole?
June 27, 2008 - Arctic melt could mean high temperatures across the globe.

The distinct possibity that this summer -- for the first time in recorded history -- the North pole could be free of sea ice, is now a common subject of discussion among the world's climate experts. The Arctic's thick, resilient multiyear sea ice (frozen sea surface), which usually accumulates and lasts through the annual melting season, has started to give way to thinner, vulnerable first-year ice.

Satellite data gathered by the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center showed that young sea ice, which is no more than about 60 inches deep and much more susceptible to melting away, now makes up only 72 percent of the Arctic ice sheet. Using that estimate, scientists at the center see a 50 percent chance that ice at the highest point in the Arctic will melt by the summer's end.

Andy Mahoney, a center researcher, has pinpointed this year in particular as having the "greatest chance" of being ice-free. Such a scenario, however, will depend on the weather during the next couple of months. "It will probably come down to how cloudy it is this summer," Mahoney says. "If there's clear skies and if atmospheric patterns resemble last year's, you're going to see a lot more melt."

More ABC News: Ice-Free Summer at the North Pole?

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Volcanoes erupting beneath Arctic ice
Fri., June. 27, 2008 - Seafloor unexpectedly active, but scientists see no connection to ice loss

New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests that a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade. Hidden 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes can range up to more than a mile (2 kilometers) in diameter and a few hundred yards (meters) tall. They formed along the Gakkel Ridge, a lengthy crack in the ocean crust where two rocky plates are spreading apart, pulling new melted rock to the surface.

Until now, scientists thought undersea volcanoes only dribbled lava from cracks in the seafloor. The extreme pressure from the overlying water makes it difficult for gas and magma to blast outward. But the Gakkel Ridge, which is relatively unexplored and considered unique for its slow spreading rate, is just the place for surprises.

Robert Reeves-Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and his colleagues discovered jagged, glassy fragments of rock scattered around the volcanoes, suggesting that explosive eruptions occurred between 1999 and 2001. They hypothesize that the slow spreading could allow excess gas to build up in pockets of magma beneath the oceanic crust. When the gas pressure gets high enough, it pops like a champagne bottle being uncorked.

More Volcanoes erupting beneath Arctic ice - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Rooskies creepin' outta the Arctic too...

Russian Researchers Flee Melting Arctic Ice Floe
July 14, 2008 - Russian Scientists Evacuate Research Station Built on Ice Floe Melting Due to Global Warming

Russian scientists are evacuating a research station built on an Arctic ice floe because global warming has melted the ice to a fraction of its original size, a spokesman said. The North Pole-35 station, where 21 researchers and two dogs live in huts, will be taken off the floe in the western Arctic Ocean this week instead of in late August as originally planned, said Sergei Balyasnikov of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

The research crew landed in early September on the 1.2- by 2.5-mile floe near the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago. During its westward drift of more than 1,550 miles, the floe shrank to just 1,000 by 2,000 feet. "The evacuation is ahead of schedule because of globalThe nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika will escort the research vessel Mikhail Somov to the station, which is drifting between the Franz Josef Land archipelago and the island of Novaya Zemlya in the western Arctic.

The researchers are packing up their winterized huts and equipment to prepare for the ships' arrival, Balyasnikov said. warming," Balyasnikov said. Over the last 60 years, Russia has organized dozens of stations that collect data on weather and Arctic flora and fauna. Soviet polar researchers were hailed as heroes, and the results of their journeys were once hailed as unique achievements of Communist science.

Russia recently resumed the tradition of using polar research to make political points. Russia last year sent an expedition to plant a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole and said research indicates a massive underwater mountain range in the area, which is believed to contain huge oil and gas reserves, is part of Russia's continental shelf.

ABC News: Russian Scientists Flee Melting Arctic Ice

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Russian Warships to Patrol Arctic Again
July 14, 2008 - Russian Warships to Return to Arctic Waters in First Regular Patrols Since Soviet Days

Russia announced Monday that it is sending warships to patrol Arctic waters for the first time since the breakup of the Soviet Union — the latest move to increase the country's global military presence. Patrols by the Northern Fleet's Severomorsk submarine destroyer and Marshal Ustinov missile cruiser will begin Thursday, Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said. Russia began sending aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean Sea in December and resumed long-range bomber patrols in August. "We have been talking for a long time about widening our activity in the Arctic," Dygalo said. "There is nothing aggressive in it — it is in the interests of security."

Former President Vladimir Putin expanded Russian military patrols and Dmitry Medvedev, who succeeded Putin in May, appears to be maintaining that course. Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said security was not Russia's primary motivation in sending the Navy ships to the Arctic. "This is flag-waving and that's basically it," Felgenhauer said. "Sending a couple of patrol boats to the Arctic won't change anything." Russia has also been moving to stake its claim to resources that are increasingly accessible as global warming melts Arctic ice.

Moscow recently sent an expedition to plant a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole and said research indicates a massive underwater mountain range in the area, which is believed to contain huge oil and gas reserves, is part of Russia's continental shelf. And Russia hopes it can increase access for fishermen who are blocked from seas around the island of Spitsbergen, where Norway claims exclusive rights. Russia does not recognize the 200-mile economic zone delineated by a 1982 U.N. treaty. Dygalo said protecting Russian fisherman was one of the aims of the new Arctic patrols.

ABC News: Russian Warships to Patrol Arctic Again

[waltky]

Northern climes gettin' warmer...

Record heat forces closure of Canada Arctic park
Fri Aug 1, `08 - A major national park in Canada's Arctic has been largely closed after record high temperatures caused flooding that washed away hiking trails and forced the evacuation of tourists, an official said on Friday.

Every year around 500 people visit Auyuittuq National Park, which covers over 19,000 square km (7,340 square miles) on Baffin Island and is dominated by the giant Penny ice cap. The park is popular with hikers and skiers. The combination of floods, melting permafrost and erosion means that the southern part of the park will remain shut until geologists can examine the damage, said Pauline Scott, a spokeswoman for Parks Canada. "We've lost huge proportions of what was formerly the trail in the park. It's disappeared -- gone," Scott said by phone from Iqaluit, capital of the Arctic territory of Nunavut.

Most visitors walk through the park -- which is slightly smaller in area than Israel -- starting from the southern edge, near the town of Pangnirtung. The problems started last month with two weeks of record temperatures on Baffin Island that reached as high as 27 Celsius (81 Fahrenheit), well above the July average of 12 C (54 F). This, Scott said, triggered massive melting which sent "a huge pulse of water through the park," washing away 60 km (37 miles) of a trail used by hikers and destroying a bridge over a river that is otherwise impassable. Earlier this week, once the extent of the damage had become clear, 21 visitors had to be evacuated by helicopter. "We're not as worried about the flash flooding as we are about the instability of the ground and the slumping and the cracks appearing all along that entire 60 km length (of the trail)," said Scott.

Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to climate change. Last week, giant sheets of ice totaling almost 20 square km (8 square miles) broke off an ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic and more might follow later this year, scientists said. Scott said more problems could be in store for the park. "We've had lots of hard rain in the south part of Baffin Island in the last five days so we don't know what this is doing to further destabilize melting permafrost, because this is what is causing the erosion," she said. In June, Pangnirtung declared a state of emergency for three weeks after flash flooding cut off the town's water supply and sewage system.

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