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Virtual reality on ice

By Guest PostFebruary 4, 2018Sciencearctic ocean, chandra kambhamettu, ice, image enhancement techniques, scott sorensen, vims lab, virtual reality

Computer scientists bring polar region to life using virtual reality

Scott Sorensen’s experiences as a computer science student at the University of Delaware were hardly typical. (more…)

Huge waves measured for first time in Arctic Ocean

By Guest PostSeptember 28, 2014Sciencealaska, alaskan coast, arctic ocean, bergbaukonzern leag, climate warms, delhi day, erosion, feminism, franz gastler, kohle tagebau, measure, models, rose thomson, rural india, shores, university of washington, unterschriften gegen tagebaue, yuwa school

As the climate warms and sea ice retreats, the North is changing. An ice-covered expanse now has a season of increasingly open water that is predicted to extend across the whole Arctic Ocean before the middle of this century. Storms thus have the potential to create Arctic swell – huge waves that could add a new and unpredictable element to the region. (more…)

NASA: Warm Rivers Play Role in Arctic Sea Ice Melt

By Guest PostMarch 8, 2014ScienceArctic, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, beaufort sea, consumption rate, dorothy hall, drainage basins, energy, factor, ignatius rigor, mackenzie river, NASA, northern hemisphere, reflective sea ice, sea ice melt, son nghiem, united states, warm rivers, watersheds

The heat from warm river waters draining into the Arctic Ocean is contributing to the melting of Arctic sea ice each summer, a new NASA study finds.

A research team led by Son Nghiem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperature of the waters discharging from a Canadian river into the icy Beaufort Sea during the summer of 2012. They observed a sudden influx of warm river waters into the sea that rapidly warmed the surface layers of the ocean, enhancing the melting of sea ice. A paper describing the study is now published online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. (more…)

Arctic study shows key marine food web species at risk from increasing CO2

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Environmentarctic marine life, arctic ocean, arctic regions, arctic study, atmosphere, carbon dioxide, catlin arctic survey, ceri lewis, changing climatic, copepods, crustaceans, helen findlay, increasing co2, marine food web, novel data, ocean acidity, oceanic conditions, pnas, range of ph, risk, university of exeter

A research expedition to the Arctic, as part of the Catlin Arctic Survey, has revealed that tiny crustaceans, known as copepods, that live just beneath the ocean surface are likely to battle for survival if ocean acidity continues to rise.

The study found that copepods that move large distances, migrating vertically across a wide range of pH conditions, have a better chance of surviving.

The increasing level of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is changing ocean chemistry leading to seawater moving down the pH scale towards acidity. Some areas of the Arctic Ocean are already experiencing the fastest rates of acidification on the planet and, combined with sea-ice loss and warming temperatures, the impacts of climate change are likely to hit Arctic marine life first. (more…)

Scientists review the ecological effects of sea ice loss

By Guest PostAugust 15, 2013Environmentarctic fox, arctic ocean, biological productivity, caribou, cecilia bitz, donald walker, ecological effects, eric post, ice microbes, jedediah brodie, jeffrey kerby, kristin laidre, microorganisms, mountainous tundra, pennsylvania state university, polar bears, ringed seals, sea ice decline, sea ice loss, tundra, uma bhatt, university of alaska, university of washington, west greenland

The Arctic Ocean has more open water each summer, a trend most scientists predict will continue in coming years. September 2012 set the record for the most open water since satellite observations began.

A University of Washington researcher is co-author on a review paper published (Aug. 2) in the journal Science looking at the ecological consequences of sea ice decline.

Led by corresponding author Eric Post, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University, the international team looked at effects on animals ranging from microorganisms to polar bears. As well as obvious changes for organisms that live in or on the ice, there also are trickle-down effects for food webs, animal behavior, species ranges, interbreeding and disease dynamics. (more…)

Global Warming will Open Unexpected New Shipping Routes in Arctic, UCLA Researchers Find

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2013EnvironmentArctic, arctic lakes, arctic ocean, asia, atlantic ocean, coast of russia, eastern canada, global temperature, global warming, icebreakers, independent climate forecasts, Japan, laurence c smith, new shipping routes, north pole, northern sea route, pacific, panama canal, polar class 6, projected shipping lanes, rotterdam, scott r stephenson, sea ice, shipping potential, suez, the netherlands, trans arctic, ucla researchers, vessels, yokohama

Shipping lanes through the Arctic Ocean won’t put the Suez and Panama canals out of business anytime soon, but global warming will make these frigid routes much more accessible than ever imagined by melting an unprecedented amount of sea ice during the late summer, new UCLA research shows.

“The development is both exciting from an economic development point of view and worrisome in terms of safety, both for the Arctic environment and for the ships themselves,” said lead researcher Laurence C. Smith, a professor of geography at UCLA. (more…)

European Satellite Confirms UW Numbers: Arctic Ocean is on Thin Ice

By Guest PostFebruary 20, 2013Environmentandy ridout, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, arctic waters, assimilation system, axel schweiger, below the ice, cloud, cryosat 2 satellite, data, duncan wingham, european satellite, european space agency, extent, ice ocean modeling, icesat, jinlun zhang, katharine giles, land elevation satellite, NASA, ocean surface, pan arctic, piomas, polar scientist, rosemary willatt, satellite observation, seymour laxon, thin ice, total volume, uk, university of washington, vulnerable, warming

The September 2012 record low in Arctic sea-ice extent was big news, but a missing piece of the puzzle was lurking below the ocean’s surface. What volume of ice floats on Arctic waters? And how does that compare to previous summers? These are difficult but important questions, because how much ice actually remains suggests how vulnerable the ice pack will be to more warming.

New satellite observations confirm a University of Washington analysis that for the past three years has produced widely quoted estimates of Arctic sea-ice volume. Findings based on observations from a European Space Agency satellite, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, show that the Arctic has lost more than a third of summer sea-ice volume since a decade ago, when a U.S. satellite collected similar data. (more…)

Surviving Without Ice

By Guest PostSeptember 15, 2012Environment, Natureamphipods, apherusa glacialis, arctic crustaceans, arctic ocean, disney movie, Environment, finding nemo, fram strait, geir johnsen, gulf stream, jorgen berge, life cycle, mark moline, melt, nemo hypothesis, north pole, ocean current, sea ice, shrimp

Arctic crustaceans use currents, deep-water migration to survive sea ice melts

With sea ice in the Arctic melting to record lows in summer months, marine animals living there face dramatic changes to their environment. Yet some crustaceans, previously thought to spend their entire lives on the underside of sea ice, were recently discovered to migrate deep underwater and follow ocean currents back to colder areas when ice disappears.

“Our findings provide a basic new understanding of the adaptations and biology of the ice-associated organisms within the Arctic Ocean,” said Mark Moline, director of the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and Policy in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “They also may ultimately change the perception of ice fauna as imminently threatened by the predicted disappearance of perennial sea ice.” (more…)

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