ANDREW C. REVKIN - Climate scientists may have significantly
underestimated the power of global warming from human-generated
heat-trapping gases to shrink the cap of sea ice floating on the Arctic
Ocean, according to a new study of polar trends. The study, published
online today in Geophysical Research Letters, concluded that an
open-water Arctic in summers could be more likely in this century than
had been estimated in the latest international review of climate
research released in February by the United Nations Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
"There are huge changes going on," said Julienne Stroeve, a lead author
of the new study and a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data
Center in Boulder, Colo. "Just with warm waters entering the Arctic,
combined with warming air temperatures, this is wreaking havoc on the
sea ice, really.". . .
Dr. Stroeve’s team found that since 1953 the area of sea ice in
September has declined at an average rate of 7.8 percent per decade.
Computer climate simulations of the same period had an average rate of
ice loss of 2.5 percent per decade.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2494659.ece
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underestimated the power of global warming from human-generated
heat-trapping gases to shrink the cap of sea ice floating on the Arctic
Ocean, according to a new study of polar trends. The study, published
online today in Geophysical Research Letters, concluded that an
open-water Arctic in summers could be more likely in this century than
had been estimated in the latest international review of climate
research released in February by the United Nations Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
"There are huge changes going on," said Julienne Stroeve, a lead author
of the new study and a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data
Center in Boulder, Colo. "Just with warm waters entering the Arctic,
combined with warming air temperatures, this is wreaking havoc on the
sea ice, really.". . .
Dr. Stroeve’s team found that since 1953 the area of sea ice in
September has declined at an average rate of 7.8 percent per decade.
Computer climate simulations of the same period had an average rate of
ice loss of 2.5 percent per decade.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2494659.ece
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