Mysterious Clouds Creeping Out of the Arctic

Click on the link at bottom for other links to pics and further info.

28 June 2007 - A new NASA satellite has recorded the first detailed images from space of a mysterious type of cloud called “night-shining” or “noctilucent." The clouds are on the move, brightening and creeping out of polar regions, and researchers don't know why.

"It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," said atmospheric scientists James Russell III of Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. "These observations suggest a connection with global change in the lower atmosphere and could represent an early warning that our Earth environment is being changed."

The "Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere” (AIM) satellite first imaged the noctilucent clouds May 25. People on the ground began seeing them June 6 over Northern Europe.

The clouds form 50 miles above the Earth’s surface, in an upper layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere. The puffs of water vapor and crystals appear during summer months above the Northern Hemisphere's pole as well the Southern Hemisphere’s pole in summer.

More Mysterious Clouds Creeping Out of the Arctic | LiveScience

They're called 'sundogs'.

Happens when you are at a certain angle from the cloud for the sun to refract its light at an angle to your position.

Saw a small one recently. As I drove on down the road my angle to the cloud changed and the effect disappeared - while the cloud itself remained visible.

[waltky]

Global warming melting arctic ice...

Arctic Sea Ice Level Reaches Historic Low
August 17, 2007 - In another grim sign of the reality of global warming, Arctic sea ice reached an historic low on Friday.

Scientists announced that there was less ice on the Arctic Sea than had ever before been recorded. With the new accelerated rates of ice melt the first summer without ice on the Arctic Sea could come 40 years earlier than forecast, in the year 2030.

"Today is a historic day," Mark Serreze, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "This is the least sea ice we've ever seen in the satellite record and we have another month left to go in the melt season this year."

According to satellite measurements, Arctic ice has fallen to 2.02 million square miles of ice, down from the previous record low of 2.05 million square miles on Sept. 21, 2005, the agency said. Japanese experts say that new measurements mean that earlier predictions of a summer with no sea ice could occur 40 years sooner than forecasters originally feared.

Scientists had originally said that there would be no Arctic Sea ice during the summer of 2070, but on Friday said that with the new accelerated rates of ice melt that the year 2030 could bring the first summer ever without ice on the Arctic Sea.

Arctic Sea Ice Level Reaches Historic Low | August 17, 2007 | AHN

[waltky]

New islands appearing from melting ice...

Islands appear as Arctic ice melts
August 21, 2007 - PREVIOUSLY unknown islands are appearing as Arctic summer sea ice shrinks to record lows, raising questions about whether global warming is outpacing UN projections, experts say.

Polar bears and seals have also suffered this year on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard because the sea ice they rely on for hunts melted far earlier than normal. "Reductions of snow and ice are happening at an alarming rate," Norwegian Environment Minister Helen Bjoernoy said at a seminar of 40 scientists and politicians that began yesterday in Ny Alesund, 1200km from the North Pole.

"This acceleration may be faster than predicted" by the UN climate panel this year, she said. Ny Alesund calls itself the world's most northerly permanent settlement, and is a base for Arctic research. The UN panel of 2500 scientists said in February that summer sea ice could almost vanish in the Arctic towards the end of this century. It said warming in the past 50 years was "very likely" the result of greenhouse gases caused by fossil fuel use.

"There may well be an ice-free Arctic by the middle of the century," Christopher Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, told the seminar, accusing the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of underestimating the melt. The thaw of glaciers that stretch out to sea around Svalbard has revealed several islands that are not on any maps.

MORE

[waltky]

Lars: "Sven, that's some powerful thunderstorm!"

Sven: "Yah Lars, must be global warming."

Powerful thunderstorm batters Finnish capital
Aug. 22, 2007 -- An exceptionally powerful thunderstorm battered the Finnish capital region on Wednesday, cutting power to thousands of households.

Powerful lightning strikes also cut the Finnish Broadcasting Company's radio broadcasts and caused malfunction of a number of traffic lights in Helsinki.

In Kirkkonummi, 30 km west of Helsinki, a man was struck by lightning and taken to hospital unconscious.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute, which had issued a rare official storm warning earlier Wednesday, advised people to stay indoors if possible as lightning, heavy rain and hails could cause damage.

Source

[waltky]

Maybe the clouds is mist from arctic ice melting...

Loss of Arctic ice leaves experts stunned
Tuesday September 4 2007 - The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced.

Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the Northwest passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the Northeast passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month.

If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030. Mark Serreze, an Arctic specialist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre at Colorado University in Denver, said: "It's amazing. It's simply fallen off a cliff and we're still losing ice."

The Arctic has now lost about a third of its ice since satellite measurements began thirty years ago, and the rate of loss has accelerated sharply since 2002. Dr Serreze said: "If you asked me a couple of years ago when the Arctic could lose all of its ice then I would have said 2100, or 2070 maybe. But now I think that 2030 is a reasonable estimate. It seems that the Arctic is going to be a very different place within our lifetimes, and certainly within our childrens' lifetimes."

MORE

[waltky]

Melting of ice opens Northwest Passage...

Ice loss opens Northwest Passage
Friday, 14 September 2007, Satellite monitoring in the Arctic began in 1978

The most direct route through the Northwest Passage has opened up fully for the first time since records began, the European Space Agency (Esa) says.

Historically, the passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic has been ice-bound.

But the agency says ice cover has been steadily shrinking, and this year's drop has made the passage navigable. The findings - based on satellite images - have raised concerns about the speed of global warming.

'Extreme'

The Northwest Passage is one of the most fabled sea routes in the world - a short cut from Europe to Asia through the high Arctic.

More BBC NEWS | Americas | Ice loss opens Northwest Passage

[waltky]

When enough ice melts, there won't be a Florida to be worried about hurricanes...

Two more signals from Arctic sea ice
Sept 24, 2007 - Winter ice declining and ice becoming thinner, adding to summer decline

The opening of the fabled Northwest Passage and the recent announcement that Arctic Sea ice has reached a new record summer low are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to polar problems, so to speak. Two new studies by scientists who keep an eye on sea ice melt have provided further evidence that the Arctic is currently suffering the brunt of global warming's effects, with the ice becoming thinner and winter ice also beginning to decline.

Ice melt in the summer is a normal phenomenon: As summer temperatures heat up the Northern Hemisphere, Arctic sea ice begins to melt, and its edge retreats and covers less of the North polar region. When temperatures begin to drop again in the winter, the ice reforms. But in recent years, rising air and ocean temperatures, fueled by global warming, have caused more and more ice to melt each summer, with ice extent reaching a record low on Sept. 16 this year, according to the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Winter sea ice, on the other hand, had remained fairly steady—until now.

Winter decline

A new study examining satellite measurements of the winter sea ice covering the Barents Sea (located north of Scandinavia) over the past 26 years has shown that the ice edge has recently been retreating in the face of rising sea surface temperatures, said study leader Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University. Her research, detailed in a recent issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, showed that the warming waters in the Barents Sea — which have risen about 3 degrees Celsius since 1980 — are to blame for the reduction in winter ice cover. Two factors contribute to the warming of the Barents Sea: warming Atlantic waters funneled in by the Gulf Stream and solar heating of the open ocean as ice melts in the summer, both of which make it harder for new ice to form in the winter.

More Two new Arctic sea ice signals - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

[waltky]

Canada gonna make sure ain't no Russian ships behind those clouds...

Ice melt raises passage tension
Monday, 8 October 2007, Less ice makes it easier to get at the Arctic's resources

In another sign of potential friction in the warming Arctic, Canada has warned that it will step up patrols of the Northwest Passage. Record summer melting of sea-ice has made the passage fully navigable; and immediately escalated a dispute over who controls the route.

Canada maintains the waterway that connects the Atlantic with the Pacific lies within its territorial waters. It has backed that up with plans for a new military base in the Arctic. However, the United States, and other countries claim international rights to use the route for shipping.

Big melt

In an interview with BBC News, the head of the Canadian Coast Guard, George Da Pont, said: "Our view is that it's our territorial waters and that we govern it accordingly. Obviously the Americans and some European countries have different views.

"I assume at some point in time they'll get settled but we're pretty confident that they're Canadian territorial waters and that we should be regulating and asserting our control over them as we would over any other part of our territorial water.

More BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ice melt raises passage tension

[waltky]

Took `em long enough...

U.S. cites 'rapid changes' in Arctic ice levels
Oct 17, 2007 - In Arctic report card, U.S. cites 'rapid changes'; Temperature and sea ice indicators marked in red — as in alert

WASHINGTON - While some indicators have stabilized, the Arctic is seeing significant changes from warming temperatures and shrinking sea ice, the Bush administration said Wednesday in an annual report card on the region. Sea ice fell well below the previous record, caribou are declining in many areas and permafrost is melting, according to the State of the Arctic report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"The bottom line is we are seeing some rapid changes in the Arctic," said Richard Spinrad, assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research at NOAA. And unlike Las Vegas, "what happens in the Arctic actually does not stay in the Arctic," he added, playing on a well-traveled slogan of the gambling mecca.

Scientists have expected polar regions to feel the first impacts of global warming and the 2006 State of the Arctic report provided a benchmark for tracking changes.

Red and yellow marks

[waltky]

Icemelt creepin' outta the Arctic too...

21 cities 'risk being swamped by rising seas'
October 22, 2007 : TWENTY-ONE major cities around the world including New York and Shanghai at a risk of rising sea levels from global warming, a think-tank has warned.

The WorldWatch institute in its State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future report said New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Bangkok, Jakarta, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Cairo, Mumbai and Karachi were among the "highly vulnerable" cities at risk. Researcher Zoe Chafe said: "Although natural disasters are often presented as rare and unexpected tragedies, the reality is they now occur more frequently, affect more people and cause hugher economic damage than ever before".

She said the the world was already "seeing hints" of the way climate change would affect cities by amplifying natural hazards, including rising sea levels, Metro.co.uk reported. In the last century the oceans rose by between 9cm and 20cm and scientists predict further increases of up to 88cm by 2100, the report said.

Ms Chafe said cities would need to plan ahead to avoid disaster. "This hinges on awareness, good governance and the empowerment of all those who are at risk" she said. The WorldWatch Institute is an independent organisation focused on the transition to environmentally sustainable societies. It released its first WorldWatch report in 1975.

21 cities 'risk being swamped by rising seas' | NEWS.com.au