Latest Polar ice packs Stories
This year, satellites saw the extent of Arctic sea ice hit a record low since measurements began in the 1970s. ESA’s SMOS and CryoSat satellites are now taking a deeper look by measuring the volume of the sea-ice cover. Measurements from ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission show that ice has thinned significantly in the seasonal ice zones, with extensive areas less than half a metre thick. Sea ice has a large influence on the heat exchange between the ocean and the...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The Arctic sea ice has stopped receding this year, but not before reaching its smallest extent, breaking the previous record set in the summer of 2007, by 18 percent. The new low sets the summertime ice area extent to about 2.1 million square miles, according to estimates from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado. This year’s unprecedented ice melt in the Arctic is the clearest sign yet of global climate...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study found that fast-flowing and narrow glaciers could trigger massive changes in the Antarctic ice sheet, inevitably adding sea-level rise and ice-sheet decay. The team tested high-resolution model simulations against reconstructions of the Antarctic ice sheet from 20,000 years ago. Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they said they used a new model during their study, capable of...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online As the end of the Arctic melt season ends with the region having already set new records for the smallest amount of sea ice extent and volume, experts this past weekend began to gauge exactly what the implications will be, both locally and throughout the rest of the world. According to BBC News Science Editor David Shukman, scientists at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) have reported that the sea ice in the area was becoming...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Arctic sea ice has melted to a record low extent; the smallest ever recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979. On August 26, 2012, the Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.58 million square miles, or 4.10 million square kilometers. This is 27,000 square miles below the previous record daily low of September 18, 2007, says new data from the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Sea ice extent...
The extent of the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has shrunk. According to scientists from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo., the amount is the smallest size ever observed in the three decades since consistent satellite observations of the polar cap began. NASA and NSIDC scientists will host a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT, today, to discuss this new record low for summertime Arctic sea ice cover. The extent of Arctic sea ice...
GREENBELT, Md., Aug. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The extent of the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean has shrunk. According to scientists from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo., the amount is the smallest size ever observed in the three decades since consistent satellite observations of the polar cap began. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) NASA and NSIDC scientists will host a media...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to hit its lowest next week and then keep on shrinking. Scientists at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center say data shows that the sea ice coverage is tracking below the previous record low, set in 2007. Arctic sea ice extent during the first two weeks of August continues to track below the 2007 record low daily ice extents. As of August 13, ice extent is already among the four lowest...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online While the Sea Ice Outlook could be viewed as a non-scientific crowd sourcing on the low point of Arctic sea ice each year, an averaging of the results produces a surprisingly constant result year after year. The U.S. government program, which emerged out of March 2008 climate change workshops in Palisades, NY, asks for regular submissions regarding the expected state of sea ice. The report generated by the program includes predictions...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Arctic sea ice is melting away far more rapidly than experts had previously predicted, with more than 215 cubic miles (900 cubic kilometers) worth disappearing from the Arctic Ocean over the past year, according to information obtained by the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 probe. According to Robin McKie, Science Editor with the UK newspaper The Guardian, that constitutes a 50% higher rate of loss than the majority of...
Latest Polar ice packs Reference Libraries
The Arctic Ocean which is located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the shallowest and smallest of the world’s five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it as an ocean, although, some oceanographers consider it as the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply, the Arctic Sea, classifying it a Mediterranean sea or an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be considered as the northernmost...
