Arctic sea ice under threat – update 1

Introduction:

The Arctic region plays a critical role in the Earth’s climate system, with its sea ice acting as a vital component. However, in recent years, the Arctic sea ice has been facing significant challenges due to various factors linked to climate change. This update sheds light on the current state of Arctic sea ice and the implications for the environment and global health.

The World daily 2-meter Air Temperature (90-90°N, 0-360°E)

The World daily 2-meter Air Temperature (90-90°N, 0-360°E) was 16.77°C on June 9, 2023, an anomaly of 0.9°C for that day. The highest temperature on record is 16.92°C, and it was reached on August 14, 2016, and the anomaly for that day was only 0.75°C. 

The record high of 16.92° actually was a tie between August 13, 2016, August 14, 2016, and July 24, 2022. That latter date is important, since the record high temperature was reached even while there was a strong La Niña, suppressing the temperature. This time, we’re in an El Niño, so we can expect even higher temperatures over the next few weeks.

The highest anomaly on record was reached on February 28, 2016, when there was a strong El Niño and the anomaly was 1.15°C. Note that these anomalies are compared to the mean temperature for that day in NOAA’s NCEP CFSv2. 

Sea surface temperature on the North Atlanti

[ image credit: WTF is Happening? An Overview – by Eliot Jacobson ]

The above image shows sea surface temperature on the North Atlantic (0-60°N, 0-80°W) depicted as anomalies, reaching about 1.1°C above the 1982-2023 mean on June 10, 2023.

The situation is especially critical in the North Atlantic, as vast amounts of ocean heat in the North Atlantic are moving toward the Arctic, threatening to cause rapid melting of Arctic sea ice and thawing of permafrost.

North Atlantic (0-60°N, 0-80°W) reaching 22.7°C

The NASA satellite image on the right provides a closer look at the sea ice near the North Pole on June 12, 2023 (click on images to enlarge). 

“The melting of Arctic sea ice not only affects the environment but also poses significant risks to human health, including mental health challenges, infectious diseases, and limited access to healthcare services.”

All this looks set to jointly result in massive loss of Arctic sea ice over the coming months, with loss of the latent heat buffer and loss of albedo threatening to trigger eruption of methane from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, as has been described many times before, such as in this post, in this post and in this post.

[ Latent heat loss, feedback #14 on the Feedbacks page ]

[ see the Extinction page ]

Both loss of Arctic sea ice and eruption of seafloor methane constitute tipping points that threaten to abruptly accelerate the temperature rise in the Arctic, thus also accelerating loss of permafrost in Siberia and North America that threatens to trigger further releases of greenhouse gases.

In addition, there are further events and developments that could unfold and make things even worse.

The upcoming temperature rise on land on the Northern Hemisphere could be of such a severity that much traffic, transport and industrial activity will grind to a halt, resulting in a reduction in cooling aerosols that are now masking the full wrath of global heating. Without these cooling aerosols, the temperature is projected to rise strongly, while there could be an additional temperature rise due to an increase in warming aerosols and gases as a result of more biomass and waste burning and forest fires. Furthermore, as traffic slows down, there will be less nitrogen oxide emissions, which could result in less hydroxyl to curtail methane.

The bar on the right depicts the threat, as discussed at the Extinction page.

In conclusion, the situation is dire and calls for support for a Climate Emergency Declaration.

In the video below, Jim Massa is interviewed by Sandy Schoelles about the changes taking place in the oceans. 

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Arctic News

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