CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Arctic

Image of the Week – See How Seasonal Sea Ice Decline Differs!

May 13, 2016
Image of the Week – See How Seasonal Sea Ice Decline Differs!
Figure 1: Arctic sea-ice area (75°N to 90°N) VS global annual mean surface air temperature for the complex model MPI-ESM-LR. Red dots represent a seasonal average over autumn (September/October/November) and blue dots over spring (March/April/May) of a particular year in the historical and future (RCP8.5) simulations. The dotted black lines result from a linear orthogonal regression in the ice area regime with the steepest change (Credit: subset of fig 2 from Bathiany et al, 2016 ).

Why do we care about sea ice in the first place? Sea ice is important for several components of the climate system. Due to its high albedo, sea ice reflects a high amount of the incoming solar radiation and is therefore relevant for the Earth’s energy budget. Sea ice inhibits the exchange of heat, moisture and momentum between ocean and atmosphere, which usually occur at the sea surface. Whe ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Happy ValentICE’s day

February 12, 2016
Image of the Week — Happy ValentICE’s day
Gas (mostly methane) bubbles captured during controlled-laboratory freezing of lake water. (Credit : Christophe Espic)

On the eve of 14 February, love and little hearts are everywhere, even trapped in lake ice! The EGU Cryosphere blog team wishes you a happy Valentine’s Day 🙂 Behind this nice picture, there is also science This picture was taken during a laboratory experiment that aimed to reproduce the bubbles observed in Arctic lake ice in the winter. In this shot, we can see two types of gas bubbles in th ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Future Decline of sea-ice extent in the Arctic (from IPCC)

December 1, 2015
Image of the Week — Future Decline of sea-ice extent in the Arctic (from IPCC)
Left: Projection of sea-ice extent in the Northern Hemisphere [NH], for the different scenarios of the IPCC ( RCPs). The dashed lines are the mean of all the models used in the CMIP5 experiment while the solid lines come from a subset of models that fit the observations the best. Right: maps of multi-model results in 2081-2100. The white and grey coloring result from the ensemble and the subset of models, respectively. (Credit: IPCC (2013), Assessment Report 5, Working Group I, Technical Summary , Figure TS.17, p92)

The Arctic sea-ice extent has declined in the past 20 years and its future is uncertain. In the end, greenhouse gas emissions will determine the impact on the sea-ice from man-made climate change through radiative forcing (i.e. Representative Concentration Pathways or RCPs). The COP21 can determine the path we will follow and which course we will take to reduce emissions. Reduction in sea-ice cove ...[Read More]