Consilience Productions

« It's official: 2014 was the hottest year for planet Earth...ever. | Main | World-wide carbon dioxide hits new high: 404 parts-per-million (ppm) »

Arctic Ice and Pacific Tycoons.
April 1, 2015 12:58 PM

Mother Earth is changing rapidly.

The Arctic Ice cover is shrinking at alarming rates:

On February 25, 2015, Arctic sea ice extent appeared to have reached its annual maximum extent, marking the beginning of the sea ice melt season. This year's maximum extent not only occurred early; it is also the lowest in the satellite record.
The reasons are complicated, but we're given an idea that it all originated in the Pacific with it's above normal temperatures causing massive storms to flow northward:
February was characterized by an unusual configuration of the jet stream, leading to warm conditions over the Pacific side of the Arctic that maintained low sea ice extent in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. Furthermore, since the last half of February through the middle of March, the Arctic Oscillation was in a strongly positive phase, with index values exceeding 5.0 for several days in the first week of March. This has been expressed as a strong Icelandic Low, a semi-permanent area of low atmospheric pressure found between Iceland and southern Greenland and extending into the Barents Sea. The strong Icelandic Low led to a pattern of surface winds over the Barents and Kara seas with an unusually strong component from the south.

Perhaps it's all caused by these massive storms, which seem to come one right after the other recently:


Join the discussion: Comments (0) | Email Link to a Friend
Permalink to post: http://www.cslproductions.org/earth/talk/archives/001497.shtml
Receive an email whenever this EARTH blog is updated:   Subscribe Here!
Tags: , , ,

Share | | Subscribe



Add your comment

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.

Support the "dialogue BEYOND music!"

Because broad and informed public participation is the bedrock of a free, democratic, and civil society, your generous donation will help increase participation in the process of social change. 100% tax deductible.
Thank you!


SEARCH OUR SITE:

Co-op America Seal of Approval  Global Voices - The world is talking, are you listening?