Related News
Drilling puts spotlight on loss of ice
Source: Agencies |
September 8, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SCIENTISTS are drilling into the Arctic sea ice this week to try to work out why it is disappearing so fast.
Researchers on the Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace ice breaker, believe changes in the Arctic are being driven both by man-made greenhouse gases and natural weather patterns.
If there is less ice, less sunlight is reflected back into space, warming the air and melting more ice.
Experts say thinning of ice over recent decades may hasten an ice-free summer as soon as 2020. And while thickness is more difficult than area to measure by satellite, if anything it is more important.
That has put the onus on better data, through new satellite, plane and submarine observations and a low-tech approach on the ice itself - drilling holes and poking a tape measure down.
Cambridge University PhD student Till Wagner said: "What the satellite sees is just the part of the ice that is above the water, and since about nine-10ths is beneath the surface, there is a huge uncertainty about what the satellite can actually see.
"That is what we are here for - to get a better handle on how thick the ice actually is."
The area of sea ice declines each summer and this year is closing on the record low of 2007.
With a week of the melt season to go, it is now less than two-thirds of the area it covered in the early 1970s.
The sea ice - distinct from ice sheets hundreds of meters thick over rock in Greenland - floats on the Arctic Ocean, and wildlife, including polar bears and walruses, depend on it for survival.
Wider risks from an ice-free ocean in summer include weather disruption - the difference in temperature between the equator and the poles is the engine of the world's weather.
If the Arctic Ocean were open sea in autumn, without an insulating layer of ice, that would allow more warming of the polar air.
One forthcoming study calculated that the total volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year.
On an ice floe near the North Pole this week, the researchers have developed a three-dimensional scan that may help scientists understand the shape and strength of the ice better.
Researchers on the Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace ice breaker, believe changes in the Arctic are being driven both by man-made greenhouse gases and natural weather patterns.
If there is less ice, less sunlight is reflected back into space, warming the air and melting more ice.
Experts say thinning of ice over recent decades may hasten an ice-free summer as soon as 2020. And while thickness is more difficult than area to measure by satellite, if anything it is more important.
That has put the onus on better data, through new satellite, plane and submarine observations and a low-tech approach on the ice itself - drilling holes and poking a tape measure down.
Cambridge University PhD student Till Wagner said: "What the satellite sees is just the part of the ice that is above the water, and since about nine-10ths is beneath the surface, there is a huge uncertainty about what the satellite can actually see.
"That is what we are here for - to get a better handle on how thick the ice actually is."
The area of sea ice declines each summer and this year is closing on the record low of 2007.
With a week of the melt season to go, it is now less than two-thirds of the area it covered in the early 1970s.
The sea ice - distinct from ice sheets hundreds of meters thick over rock in Greenland - floats on the Arctic Ocean, and wildlife, including polar bears and walruses, depend on it for survival.
Wider risks from an ice-free ocean in summer include weather disruption - the difference in temperature between the equator and the poles is the engine of the world's weather.
If the Arctic Ocean were open sea in autumn, without an insulating layer of ice, that would allow more warming of the polar air.
One forthcoming study calculated that the total volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year.
On an ice floe near the North Pole this week, the researchers have developed a three-dimensional scan that may help scientists understand the shape and strength of the ice better.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
