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Aquarius to Illuminate Links Between Salt, Climate

By Guest PostMay 12, 20111 commentEnvironment, Scienceage of aquarius, arctic ocean, Argentina, broadway musical, california, climate, climate change, concentration of salt, earth, evaporation, founder of buddhism, freshwater, gary lagerloef, gautama siddhartha, global precipitation patterns, hair, heavens, ice melt, jupiter, mars, moon, NASA, national space agency, ocean, ocean circulation, ocean surface roughness, ocean surface salinity data, rainfall, river runoff, salinity, salt seeking aquarius, satellite studies, scatterometer, tropical rainfall measuring mission, vandenberg air force base, water cycle, waves

When NASA’s salt-seeking Aquarius instrument ascends to the heavens this June, the moon above its launch site at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base won’t be in the seventh house, and Jupiter’s latest alignment with Mars will be weeks in the past, in contrast to the lyrics of the song from the popular Broadway musical “Hair.” Yet for the science team eagerly awaiting Aquarius’ ocean surface salinity data, the dawning of NASA’s “Age of Aquarius” promises revelations on how salinity is linked to Earth’s water cycle, ocean circulation and climate.

Salinity – the concentration of salt – on the ocean surface is a key missing puzzle piece in satellite studies of Earth that will improve our understanding of how the ocean and atmosphere are coupled and work in tandem to affect our climate. While satellites already measure sea surface temperature and winds, rainfall, water vapor, sea level, and ocean color, measurements of ocean surface salinity have, until quite recently, been limited to sparse data collected from ships, buoys and a small number of airborne science campaigns. (more…)

Warming North Atlantic Water Tied to Heating Arctic, According to New Study

By Guest PostJanuary 31, 20111 commentEnvironmentalaska, archipelago, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, arctic warming, foraminifera shells, fram strait, global warming in the arctic, greenland, ice free, kirstin werner, loss of arctic sea ice, medieval warm period, north atlantic ocean water, norway, robert spielhagen, svalbard, temperature, thomas marchitto, university of colorado at boulder

The temperatures of North Atlantic Ocean water flowing north into the Arctic Ocean adjacent to Greenland — the warmest water in at least 2,000 years — are likely related to the amplification of global warming in the Arctic, says a new international study involving the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Led by Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, the study showed that water from the Fram Strait that runs between Greenland and Svalbard — an archipelago constituting the northernmost part of Norway — has warmed roughly 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past century. The Fram Strait water temperatures today are about 2.5 degrees F warmer than during the Medieval Warm Period, which heated the North Atlantic from roughly 900 to 1300 and affected the climate in Northern Europe and northern North America. (more…)

Projected Losses of Arctic Sea-Ice and Polar Bear Habitat may be Reduced if Greenhouse Gas Emissions are Stabilized

By Guest PostDecember 16, 2010Environment, NatureArctic, arctic ocean, Arctic sea ice, atmospheric co2, average global temperature, current co2 levels, emissions, global, greenhouse gas, jessica k robertson, linear, modeling, modeling study, patrick Kelley, polar bears, sea ice habitats, sea ice loss, steve amstrup, usgs

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sea-ice habitats essential to polar bears would likely respond positively should more curbs be placed on global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new modeling study published in the journal, Nature.

The study, led by the U.S. Geological Survey, included university and other federal agency scientists. The research broke new ground in the “tipping point” debate in the scientific community by providing evidence that during this century there does not seem to be a tipping point at which sea-ice loss would become irreversible. (more…)

Russia and Norway Sign Agreement on the Border in the Arctic Ocean

By PravdaSeptember 15, 20101 commentGeneral, Politicsarctic circle, arctic ocean, barents sea, dmitry medvedev, energy-rich, gas production, gazprom, jens stoltenberg, murmansk, norway, norwegian prime minister, oil, ria novosti, russia, russian president, shtokman gas project

Russia and Norway signed an agreement to settle a four-decade-long border dispute over the energy-rich Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, paving the way for more cooperation on oil and gas production.

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Tag Archives: arctic ocean

Aquarius to Illuminate Links Between Salt, Climate

Warming North Atlantic Water Tied to Heating Arctic, According to New Study

Projected Losses of Arctic Sea-Ice and Polar Bear Habitat may be Reduced if Greenhouse Gas Emissions are Stabilized

Russia and Norway Sign Agreement on the Border in the Arctic Ocean