Sea Ice Seasonal Cycle In Response To Global Warming

In the last 40 years ocean temperatures have been rising constantly. The vast masses of water store high amounts of excess heat energy (~93%) and in the past 40 years the temperatures up to a depth of 700m rose up to 0.44°C in the first 75m and about 0.06°C in 700m depth. There is data from expeditions dating back to the 1870s that show observable changes in ocean temperature since then. Once of the most important aspects about increasing surface temperature of the oceans is the consequences warmer water has for floating sea ice.2In general, the amount of sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic has decreased dramatically. It is said that within the twenty-first century there will be sea ice free summers in the Arctic. The melting of sea ice causes sea levels to rise, currently with a rate of about 3mm every year,

The change the Artic will have an impact on the earth. Temperatures in the Arctic are rising at twice the rate of the rest of the world on average, and melting glaciers and land-based ice sheets are contributing to rising sea levels. Rising ocean temperatures are affecting ocean ecosystems. In turn having an affect on the communities and economies that depend on them. The changing Arctic could lead to global changes in ocean-based food security that will place additional burdens on economies, societies, and institutions around the world.

In order to provide context for the recent decline of ice in the sea, it is imperative to understand how the sea ice has varied over the past two centuries. Of particular interest, the period around 1920-1940 showed an “increase in almost twice the global average rate in past 100 years. [ ]” The warming during this time can be used to compare the decline of sea ice observed since 1979, but what will also be discussed is how this time period was also quite controversial due to its substantial variance between the official views and views held by other people. The reliability of the sea ice observations during the first half of the 20th century according to some people cannot provide certainty to estimating

Climate change can be drastic in the Arctic. It is exceedingly different from climate change in different parts of the world.

The polar ice and climate change is not only affecting the arctic, but it is affecting the human race, too. The ice melting as we all know, but what we don’t know is what is the after affect of ice melting. While the ice is melting it thins out and that causes the ice to spread. The ice has gone through Russia and now to Canada in four- five years. This distance of ice spreading used to take six-seven years. This means the ice is now melting more pushing the other ice faster! What some people may not know is that as the ice moves it carries pollution, and when it is spring and summer all the ice melts and pollution goes into the ocean.

Most of the world’s population has little knowledge on how important the Arctic truly is. The ice in the Arctic is melting at one of the fastest rates in human history. During the summer season a certain amount of ice is estimated to melt, this wouldn’t have been a problem a few decades ago, the winter storms and cold would replenish the ice lost over the summer, keeping the total amount of ice in the arctic relatively stable. But now, the total amount of ice in the Arctic decreases all year long. The Arctic regulates the Earth’s temperature, acting like an air conditioner. The acceleration of the Arctic melting has played a role in the extreme weather events over the past few years, such as; unpredicted heat waves and droughts in the U.S.

In recent years arctic ice has been melting faster than it can replenish itself. Many climatologists believe the ever increasing volume of melting ice is due to human activity. In this paper I hope to show you how the excess burning of fossil fuels has changed the climate, and therefore plays a part in the melting of arctic ice.

Glaciers serve as an important indicator to the changes occurring on Earth. Global warming and climate change are definitely observable changes. For more than a century, Earth’s temperature has been increasing dramatically, thus contributing to the melting of Earth’s glaciers. Melting is observed in the ice sheets of Antarctica, Greenland and non-polar glaciers found around the world (Nat Geo). A small amount of ice is stored in non-polar glaciers in comparison to ice sheets. However non-polar glaciers have had a significant effect on sea-level rise. Non-polar glaciers have higher mass-balance sensitivity than the large ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. It is estimated about half of sea-level rise is attributable to the shrinkage of non-polar glaciers, according to glacier mass-balance data (Fujita). Some non-climatic factors that affect mass balances include oceanic circulation, sliding rates due to basal water supply and stability of ice shelves. Climatic factors include precipitation, temperature and sunlight. Recently, the spotlight has been placed on human impacts, particularly the

First of all, the Arctic sea ice is melting because of extra greenhouse gases that humans are adding to the earth’s atmosphere. The Arctic sea ice is important because it keeps the polar region cool and helps the moderate global climate. When the Arctic sea ice melts, not only do coastal

The Arctic and Antarctic sea ice is a necessity to the animals currently residing on the ice. It provides necessary nutrients for them to thrive off of, acts as a home for various amounts of species that are suitable to live there, and help keep the water’s heat from adding to the cause of global warming. In conclusion, sea ice is vital to keep the environment

Scientists have dedicated a significant amount of time and resources to establish the impacts of climate change on Arctic ecosystems. Markedly, the major concern of the study is the expectation that the Arctic region will face adverse effects of global warming than other biomes because the Arctic is more susceptible to these impacts of climate change. This explains the phenomenon of the vulnerability of the arctic zones to the climatic changes observed today. The effects of climatic changes have impacted on the arctic vegetation, arctic animal life, and life in the arctic seas.

If I have the honor to be accepted to attend the DIS Copenhagen program, I plan on studying the environment and organisms in the Arctic Sea through the Glaciers and Human Impact: Icelandic Climate Change Case Study, along with Biological Conservation and Biodiversity with Lab, and Biology of Marine Mammals with Lab. As I am hopefully moving to Denmark in the future, I plan on taking Danish I & II which will help me understand the culture and language more efficiently and cover my language requirements. Presently, I am an Environmental Science major with minors in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Biology. The biological and environmental courses relate well with my Environmental science major and my biology minor as well as covering earth space science and biology electives.

Unlike Arctic sea ice, which is currently decreasing at a rate which may make it seasonally ice-free before the end of the 21st century (Körper et al., 2013), Antarctic sea ice (ASI) is experiencing an overall steady increase, albeit with strong regional variations (Zwally et al., 2002). Here is outlined the main climatic processes and factors which cause and control changes in ASI, studied using both climate modelling (Körper et al., 2013; Li et al., 2013; Vancoppenolle et al., 2009) and direct observations (Jacobs and Cosimo, 1997; Parkinson and Cavalieri, 2012). In general, there seems to be a large combination of factors which are causing the regional variations and overall increase in ASI, many of which are interlinked (Kwok and Cosimo, 2002; Stammerjohn et al., 2008; Yuan and Li, 2008). This report also highlights how climate models need to be tested against real-life observations to ensure accurate predictions for the future (Goosse et al., 2009; Maksym et al., 2012; Vancoppenolle et al., 2009), which are important in the face of growing concern over climate change and sea-level rise, in which ASI may play a huge part (Körper et al., 2013).

The negative side of an unnatural weather change is that it prompts softening of ice. The world's icy masses, particularly Arctic ice sheets are liquefying speedier than new snow and ice can supplement them. Amid the liquefying of Arctic ice opens over the dim surface of the water or soil and adjust change reflects less and retain a more prominent measure of warmth, consequently,

If global warming keeps going unchecked, there will be dire consequences for the Arctic. There have been several prediction models that show what type of climate and environment that the Arctic will have in the future. Stephen Vavrus and his colleagues display this prediction through the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Community Climate System Model, version four (CCSM4). The CCSM4 shows that the it is going to be “a much warmer, wetter, cloudier, and stormier