Climate Science Glossary

Term Lookup

Enter a term in the search box to find its definition.

Settings

Use the controls in the far right panel to increase or decrease the number of terms automatically displayed (or to completely turn that feature off).

Term Lookup

Settings


All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.

Home Arguments Software Resources Comments The Consensus Project Translations About Support

Twitter Facebook YouTube Mastodon MeWe

RSS Posts RSS Comments Email Subscribe


Climate's changed before
It's the sun
It's not bad
There is no consensus
It's cooling
Models are unreliable
Temp record is unreliable
Animals and plants can adapt
It hasn't warmed since 1998
Antarctica is gaining ice
View All Arguments...



Username
Password
New? Register here
Forgot your password?

Latest Posts

Archives

Video: Climate scientists discuss record lows in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice

Posted on 12 April 2017 by Guest Author

This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Roz Pidcock

Scientists confirmed last month that sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic fell to record low levels in March, capping off an exceptional few months at the Earth’s poles. Carbon Brief has asked some polar scientists to put the much-reported findings in context.

The Arctic winter maximum – the highest point for the year – was the smallest in the satellite record, for the third year in a row. Prof Julienne Stroeve, professor of polar observation and modelling at the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre and University College London explains how this makes the ice vulnerable. She tells Carbon Brief:

“We’ve never seen three winters in a row with very warm Arctic temperatures…The problem with that is…you’re not going to grow very thick ice…That’s not good news going into the melt season.”

Dr James Screen, a senior lecturer in climate dynamics at the University of Exeter, looks at how Arctic sea ice loss might be affecting weather patterns much further south, even in the UK. As he puts it:

“What happens in the Arctic, doesn’t stay in the Arctic.”

At the other end of the planet, Antarctic sea ice fell to its minimum extent for the year in March – marking an all-time record low for the satellite era, which extends back to 1979. Dr Emily Shuckburgh, head of the polar ocean team at the British Antarctic Survey, warns against jumping to conclusions. She tells Carbon Brief:

“If you go back just to 2014, we saw a maximum in terms of our satellite record. So, there is a lot of variability and I think it would be premature to draw any strong conclusions from one year.”

 

0 0

Printable Version  |  Link to this page

Comments

There have been no comments posted yet.

You need to be logged in to post a comment. Login via the left margin or if you're new, register here.



The Consensus Project Website

THE ESCALATOR

(free to republish)


© Copyright 2024 John Cook
Home | Translations | About Us | Privacy | Contact Us