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NASA Earth Science

NASA: Arctic Sea Ice 2nd-Lowest On Record (earthsky.org) 206

An anonymous reader quotes a report from EarthSky: NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said on September 15, 2016 that summertime Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its annual minimum on September 10. With fall approaching and temperatures in the Arctic dropping, it's unlikely more ice will melt, and so the 2016 Arctic sea ice minimum extent will likely be tied with 2007 for the second-lowest yearly minimum in the satellite record. Satellite data showed this year's minimum at 1.60 million square miles (4.14 million square km). NASA said in a statement: "Since satellites began monitoring sea ice in 1978, researchers have observed a steep decline in the average extent of Arctic sea ice for every month of the year [...] The sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas helps regulate the planet's temperature, influences the circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, and impacts Arctic communities and ecosystems. Arctic sea ice shrinks every year during the spring and summer until it reaches its minimum yearly extent. Sea ice regrows during the frigid fall and winter months, when the sun is below the horizon in the Arctic." The NASA/NSIDC statement explained why the melt of Arctic sea ice surprised scientists in 2016. For one thing, it changed pace several times: "The melt season began with a record low yearly maximum extent in March and a rapid ice loss through May. But in June and July, low atmospheric pressures and cloudy skies slowed down the melt. Then, after two large storms went across the Arctic basin in August, sea ice melt picked up speed through early September." NASA posted an animation on YouTube that "shows the evolution of the Arctic sea ice cover from its wintertime maximum extent, which was reached on Mar. 24, 2016, and was the lowest on record for the second year in a row, to its apparent yearly minimum, which occurred on Sept. 10, 2016, and is the second lowest in the satellite era."
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NASA: Arctic Sea Ice 2nd-Lowest On Record

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  • by wierd_w ( 1375923 ) on Monday September 19, 2016 @10:43PM (#52921563)

    The GOP, the oil industry, and The Donald ALL agree!

    Stories from Nature Magazine suggesting permanent droughts in California http://www.nature.com/articles... [nature.com] are just fear mongering to distract you from your civic obligation to consume conspicuously and excessively!

    Industry must continue to grow eternally, or the financial Apocalypse will happen!

    remember, Jesus will come and fix everything, so its all good!

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday September 19, 2016 @11:00PM (#52921619)

      This was the second lowest sea ice extent. So basically, what this mean is that the worst is past, and things are improving. Global warming could have been a major problem, so it is good to see that we dodged that bullet, the crisis is over, and we don't need to worry about it anymore.

      • Indeed! Now if only those damned scientists would just accept that this is fact, we can all get back to driving hummers and using incandescent lightbulb, like god intended!

      • This is irony, I intensely hope..... please let it be irony.

        • Poe's Law is strong in global warming.

        • Unfortunately so many posts are meant as irony and sarcasm, which for the stupid among us, become a firm stance. Our sarcastic obviously flawed logic written using as many bad arguments as possible. Seems to have convinced some that it was indeed a good idea.

          The big part of the problem is how we assume that everything has a political motive to it. My sense it started back in the 1960's with the Hippies. Who pushed the fringe of the left wing very far to the left, while some of their ideas were foolhardy,

    • *Jedi-mindtrick-handwaving*

      "This isn't the global warming you're looking for..."

      Don't worry, it works on the feeble-minded.

    • Listen, global warming isn't happening, all right?

      And even if it was happening, which it isn't, it certainly isn't man made, understand?

      And even if global warming was occurring, which is false, and it were man made, which isn't true, there's nothing we can do about it anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by WindBourne ( 631190 )
      Sadly, it is the far left that is more of the problem. THey acknowledge that Climate Change is real, but then:
      1) ignore China as being the major emitter and growing fast,
      2) focus their efforts on America who is already below 15% and dropping fast,
      3) claim that solar and wind will take care of everything, but then ignore the fact that Germany who is the most dependent on these, are now building out new coal plants and will miss their emissions limits over the next couple of years.
      4) ignore that the ONL
      • The far right refuses to acknowledge there's a problem, and I think the far left is being a little more useful than that.

  • That it is up from the lowest and bouncing back.

    Gee that was fun. Can anyone play ?

    • by dave420 ( 699308 )

      Seeing as you spent many discussions under the impression sea ice and land ice were the same thing, I think it's safe to assume you don't know what you're talking about.

      • Dave off your meds again ?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences." - Robert Green Ingersoll

  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday September 19, 2016 @11:16PM (#52921677) Journal

    When I'm president we're going to have massive ice, all right? Strong, powerful ice that grabs you by the shoulders and pushes you down on your stomach and shows you what real ice is all about. Barack Obama let the ice get all thin and runny, which is really really sad. I'm going to make sure the ice is thick and hard and respected everywhere, all right? Respected everywhere. And it will be white, American ice, not muddy ice.

    • *Eyes start to spiral* We can TRUMP climate change folks, we just need negotions, also LOOK OVER THERE, ITS HILARY DOING A THING

    • When I'm president we're going to have massive ice, all right? Strong, powerful ice that grabs you by the shoulders and pushes you down on your stomach and shows you what real ice is all about. Barack Obama let the ice get all thin and runny, which is really really sad. I'm going to make sure the ice is thick and hard and respected everywhere, all right? Respected everywhere. And it will be white, American ice, not muddy ice.

      And Canada is going to pay for it.

  • Ocean Warming (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    For anyone interested in how this is being driven by increased ocean warming, here is an in-depth report which is worth a read!

    https://www.iucn.org/news/global-warning-ocean-warming

  • 2nd lowest? that means global warming is improving! global warming is over! celebrate?

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