Study shows warm water sliding into Beaufort Sea May 5th 10:19 pm |
Alice Bailey, For the Arctic Sounder
A new study provides the first high-resolution observations of warm, northbound water sliding beneath the surface of the cold Beaufort Sea.
The research, published in Nature Communications, adds to evidence that polar ice may be melting faster than models predict. The rate of accelerating sea ice melt in the Arctic has been hard to predict accurately, in part because of all of the complex local feedbacks between ice, ocean and atmosphere; this work showcases the large role in warming that ocean water plays as part of those feedbacks, said Jennifer MacKinnon, a physical oceanographer at the University of California San Diego s Scripps Institute of Oceanography and lead author of the paper.
La banquise arctique menacée par de redoutables bombes thermiques sciencepost.fr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sciencepost.fr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Dangerous Heat Bombs Have Been Entering The Arctic Ocean, Expedition Reveals
30 APRIL 2021
For decades, warmer waters seeping into the Arctic Ocean have increasingly threatened Arctic sea ice, with scientists predicting the ice pack could disappear entirely in summers from the middle of the next decade.
Researchers have now uncovered one of the mechanisms driving this catastrophe, identifying how heat bombs of warm, salty water from the Pacific Ocean flow into the frigid Arctic Ocean, heating the ice above from underneath for months or even years. The rate of accelerating sea ice melt in the Arctic has been hard to predict accurately, in part because of all of the complex local feedbacks between ice, ocean, and atmosphere, says physical oceanographer Jennifer MacKinnon from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.