时间:2025-04-26 21:12:11 来源:网络整理编辑:百科
Something strange and unnerving is happening in the Arctic: A chunk of sea ice bigger than the state
Something strange and unnerving is happening in the Arctic: A chunk of sea ice bigger than the states of Alaska and Texas combined was missing from the sea ice cover at the end of October.
And now as we head into Thanksgiving, sea ice is still sitting at record low daily levels, with air temperatures so far above average that they go off the charts on some weather maps.
SEE ALSO:China, India would pick up America's clean energy slack under TrumpIn some areas, daily temperature anomalies have hit 35 degrees Fahrenheit above average for this time of year, and during October, some spots experienced monthly average temperature anomalies of 15.6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for the month.
Daily sea ice extent has been at a record low level nearly every day from mid-October to Nov. 16, and there are few signs that this pattern will end soon.
A looking at changing #Arctic sea ice concentration from 9/1 to present. The colored lines indicate the 1980/1990/2000 average extents pic.twitter.com/9KUbsJTyvn
— Zack Labe (@ZLabe) November 16, 2016
Sea ice is missing from the Barents and Kara Seas in particular, which are on the Atlantic side of the Arctic Ocean.
The fact that the Arctic climate is showing signs of distress isn't new, given that the region has been warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, with sweeping impacts from sea ice melt to potential changes in weather patterns across North America and Europe.
However, the conditions in the area that serves as the Northern Hemisphere's freezer stand out even against the backdrop of long-term climate change and short-term weather patterns, which can be highly variable.
"The persistence of these anomalous temperatures in the Arctic is unusual," said Zack Labe, a graduate student studying Arctic climate at the University of California at Irvine. Labe has been exchanging charts for weeks with other scientists via social media, marveling at just how rare the current conditions in the Arctic are.
In a Twitter message, Labe told Mashablethat unusually mild sea surface temperatures across parts of the Kara and Barents seas are preventing ice from forming there, even though air temperatures are below freezing.
With such a late freeze-up, the ice may be precariously thin when the summer melt season arrives.
"...I'd expect this unusual pattern may significantly affect sea ice thickness/volume this month," Labe said.
"This may have implications going forward into the 2017 melt season."
The slow growth in sea ice this winter is in part a legacy of the near-record ice melt during the summer and fall of this year, with sea ice reaching the second-lowest extent on record in late September.
Ice cover was so scant that a sailboat with little ice protection at all managed to circumnavigate the Arctic -- through the Northeast and Northwest Passages -- without getting stuck in an ice floe.
Areas of open water absorb more of the sun's incoming radiation compared to ice covered regions, making them heat up and release more water vapor into the atmosphere. These waters take longer to cool back down once the Arctic winter sets in, thereby delaying ice formation, and the evaporation that takes place can also warm the atmosphere.
"The ocean has got to lose that heat," says Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), in Boulder, Colorado.
In addition to this, weather patterns seem to be stuck in a rut, continuously favoring unusually warm conditions in the Arctic, while a vast expanse of land from Siberia to eastern Asia freezes.
"There is a double whammy here," Serreze told Mashable. "Ice growth is slow because of the high sea surface temperatures and the atmospheric circulation bringing in the heat."
According to Serreze, last fall and winter were also "extremely warm" compared to normal, making this late-year spike stand out even more. "It is kind of unusual to have this second go around of this," he said.
"There are some pretty crazy things going on in the Arctic right now, and we're still trying to figure it all out."
Richard Branson 'thought he was going to die' in bike accident2025-04-26 19:43
轉會通:熱刺壓哨簽尤文後腰 拜仁補強鎖藍軍鐵衛2025-04-26 19:37
李霄鵬 :賽前激勵過度隊員非常緊張 中國足球崛起是遲早的事2025-04-26 19:31
英超轉會匯總:紅軍補強曼城回血 紐卡怒砸近億鎊2025-04-26 19:25
Watch MTV's Video Music Awards 2016 livestream2025-04-26 19:13
李影曬中國女足年夜飯 全隊溫馨圍坐品嚐印度餃子2025-04-26 19:04
官方:熱刺中場阿裏加盟埃弗頓 潛在轉會費1200萬2025-04-26 19:04
英媒:蘭帕德執教埃弗頓官宣在即 欲挖角曼聯熱刺2025-04-26 18:31
Watch MTV's Video Music Awards 2016 livestream2025-04-26 18:29
顏駿淩:球隊唯一目標就是獲勝 要謹防對手滲透性短傳2025-04-26 18:26
This company is hiring someone just to drink all day2025-04-26 21:08
曼聯宣布格林伍德停訓停賽 曼市警方 :已逮捕拘留2025-04-26 21:06
曼城官方:球隊與坎塞洛完成續約 新合同至2027年2025-04-26 20:50
李霄鵬:每場比賽對中國隊都很重要 精神抖擻準備拿三分2025-04-26 20:50
Singapore gets world's first driverless taxis2025-04-26 20:14
官方 :尤文引進瑞士國腳中場 450萬歐分期3年支付2025-04-26 19:38
熱議中越之戰 :居然丟的是頭球!踢得就跟鬧著玩似的2025-04-26 19:03
周金輝:新賽季繼續遵循足球發展規律 腳踏實地提升運營能力2025-04-26 18:47
Michael Phelps says goodbye to the pool with Olympic gold2025-04-26 18:33
範誌毅神預言成真:中國足球臉都不要了 再下去要輸越南了2025-04-26 18:27