In the next few days, I will be sharing some of our work that I am most proud of from my time at NOAA/GFDL.

But I would also like a little normalcy today on my feed, so here's my go-to sea ice data viz update. Though, to be clear, the info certainly isn't normal...

#Arctic sea ice extent still remains the *lowest* on record for the date (JAXA). Not good.

Last month observed widespread warmer than average sea surface temperatures surrounding the #Arctic Ocean ice edge. Some of the largest anomalies were along the coast in the southeastern Barents Sea.

Data: NOAA OISSTv2.1 (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/optimum-interpolation-sst) 🌊

📍Tromsø , Norway 🇳🇴

#tromso #norway #troms #travel #norge #auroraborealis #northernlights #nature #visittromso #visitnorway #nordnorge #northernnorway #ig #arctic #tromsolove #europe #travelpics #oslo #noruega #like #explore #travelphotography #fronteiras #norwaynature #photography #traveltheworld #aurora #scandinavia #naturephotography #mountains

#MeerMittwoch #seawednesday

#photo #photography #BlackAndWhite #potd #alttext #norge #norway #arctic #blackandwhitephotography #travel #travelphotography #sea #ocean #photooftheday #andoya

#Palestinian #Solidarity North of 60. https://rabble.ca/political-action/palestinian-solidarity-north-of-60/

#HumanRights #Gaza #Genocide #FreePalestine #Arctic #NWT

In the big picture, Greenland and Canada ownership is not for US keeping. They are prized natural resource land masses that, in the hands of Russia, give Putin control of the entire arctic polar region and beyond, expanding Russian territory in a bold new direction. We don't need them. Russia wants them. And this new US government is very interested in pleasing Russia.

#Russia #Trussia #USA #Greenland #Canada #Arctic #geopolitics #expansion #dominion #world

So the 33 days so far this winter with Arctic Sea ice extent at the lowest since 1978-79 got me wondering about when lowest daily occurred through the year. Answer: mostly 2016-2020 except 2012 mid-August to early October and 2010 for a short stretch in late June and early July. Data courtesy NSIDC. #Arctic #SeaIce @Climatologist49 @ZLabe

Arctic-wide sea ice extent this season has been at record low levels 33 days (and counting) since December 1. Data from NSIDC. #Arctic #Seaice

Most of the #Arctic Ocean is covered with sea ice in February. However, the edges are observing warming at the ocean surface. Warming trends are particularly large in the North Atlantic and Davis Strait/Labrador Sea.

Data from NOAA OISSTv2.1. For more info: https://doi.org/10.25923/9z96-aq19

Temperatures remain well above average across the #Arctic, though these anomalies will begin to wane over the next few days. This is also coinciding with record low sea ice conditions for this time of year.

Sea ice data from: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index. Map from https://climatereanalyzer.org/

Saturday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the *lowest* on record (JAXA data)

• about 640,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,280,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,850,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,290,000 km² below the 1980s mean

Plots: https://zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice-extentconcentration/

Honningsvåg, Norway

#SilentSunday #stillersonntag
#Fotografie #fotografia #foto #photo #photography #photographie #fotograaf #potd #alttext #travel #camelCase #abstract #travelphotography #photooftheday #norge #norway #arctic #honningsvåg

And to continue the feel-better-in-grey-winter vibe, summer from the arctic: this is the extroardinary #Lofoten #Norway at midsummer last year. The wildflowers were wild, weather: blue and warm (worryingly: pavement coffee in Tromsø a day or two later). And the midnight sun - exquisite, if a bit weird.

Navigation into Trollfjorden, N of Svolvaer, is unbelievable, given how tight it is - to navigate then turn (on the spot) to return. Impressive stuff from the skipper.

#Arctic #bloomscrolling

Sorry - a not so very good Sunday ice update. #Arctic sea ice extent is easily the *lowest* on record to kick off a new year (JAXA data)... 🌊

• about 610,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 2,160,000 km² below the 1980s mean

Additional long-term sea ice graphs: https://zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice-figures/

There is now less #SeaIce in the #Arctic than we ever recorded in mid December.

And we measure since the 1970s.

#climateChange @osi_saf @CopernicusECMWF

#Arctic #tundra is now emitting more #carbon than it absorbs, US agency says

Drastic shift driven by frequent #wildfires, pushing surface air #temperatures to second-warmest on record since 1900

by Dharna Noor, Tue 10 December

"The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon sink, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (#Noaa) said on Tuesday.

"This drastic shift is detailed in Noaa’s 2024 Arctic Report Card, which revealed that annual surface air temperatures in the Arctic this year were the second-warmest on record since 1900.

“'Our observations now show that the Arctic tundra, which is experiencing warming and increased wildfire, is now emitting more carbon than it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts,' said Rick Spinrad, a Noaa administrator.

"The report, led by scientists from the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, found that the Arctic is warming faster than the global average for the 11th year in a row.

"Currently, it is warming at up to four times the global rate, the authors found.

"Climate warming has dual effects on the Arctic. While it stimulates plant productivity and growth, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it also leads to increased surface air temperatures that cause permafrost to thaw.

"When permafrost thaws, carbon trapped in the frozen soil is decomposed by microbes and released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, two potent greenhouse gases.

"'We need accurate, holistic and comprehensive knowledge of how climate changes will affect the amount of carbon the Arctic is taking up and storing, and how much it’s releasing back into the atmosphere, in order to effectively address this crisis,' said Dr Sue Natali, a scientist at the Woodwell Center who contributed to the research. 'This report represents a critical step toward quantifying these emissions at scale.'

"Human-caused climate change is also intensifying high-latitude wildfires, which have increased in burned area, intensity and associated carbon emissions.

"Wildfires not only combust vegetation and soil organic matter, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, but they also strip away insulating soil layers, accelerating long-term permafrost thaw and its associated carbon emissions.

"'In recent years, we’ve seen how increasing fire activity from climate change threatens both communities and the carbon stored in permafrost, but now we’re beginning to be able to measure the cumulative impact to the atmosphere, and it’s significant,' said Dr Brendan Rogers, Woodwell Climate scientist and report contributor."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/10/arctic-tundra-carbon-shift?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

#GlobalWarming #GlobalBurning #2024ArcticReportCard #ArcticWarming #Tundra #PermafrostThaw #GreenhouseGases #Methane #Microbes #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange

Average November 2024 #Arctic sea ice extent was the 3rd lowest on record...

This was 1,590,000 km² below the 1981-2010 average. November ice extent is decreasing at about 4.76% per decade.

Data: https://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index

#Permafrost Thaw May Cause #Arctic River Erosion to Speed Up

October 09, 2024

"Permafrost, the thick layer of perennially frozen ground that covers much of the Arctic, slows down the migration of Arctic rivers, according to a new Caltech study. River migration is a common process in which a river's path meanders over time due to erosion of the riverbanks. This rerouting, which can also occur in #SuddenFloods, poses a threat for many communities that live along and depend on rivers. The findings also have implications for how the Arctic region will be impacted by a warming climate as permafrost thaws over time.

"The research was conducted in the Caltech laboratory of Michael Lamb, professor of geology, and is described in a paper appearing in the journal Nature on October 9.

"Led by graduate student Emily Geyman, the study focused on the #KoyukukRiver, a large tributary of the #YukonRiver that winds for hundreds of miles through interior Alaska. There was debate within the scientific community about whether the frozen soil along the riverbanks serves to fortify the banks against erosion or to promote it.

"'Large rivers like the Yukon or the Amazon can move tens to hundreds of feet per year,' Geyman says. "Arctic rivers in particular differ from temperate rivers because they need to thaw the material of their banks before they can pick that material up and move it.'

"Due to #ClimateChange, permafrost is slowly thawing over decades. But a river can experience drastic natural changes within a single year, with flow conditions changing from very cold and fast in early spring to warm and slow a few months later. Geyman and her collaborators leveraged these major changes that take place within a single season to gain a glimpse into how the rivers will behave in response to climate change decades or centuries into the future.

"In spring, the Koyukuk River swells in volume from snowmelt, flowing with fast, cold water. For more temperate rivers, a fast flow means more erosion. But in the Arctic, the temperature of the water matters—cold water is unable to thaw the frozen banks in order to migrate.

"In the new study, Geyman and her collaborators used satellite imagery of the Koyukuk over the past several years and developed a technique to decode high-resolution changes from the images. The team hypothesized that if permafrost was slowing the river's migration, they should only see migration later in the summer when the river water has warmed up. Their hypothesis matched with the satellite data, suggesting that permafrost does, in fact, slow down river migration.

"Next, the team compared sections of the river that flow through permafrost with those that do not. The Koyukuk is special because it traverses a patchwork of both permafrost and unfrozen ground. The team traveled to the Arctic to map the erosion on various bends of the river and found that sections without permafrost migrated twice as fast as analogous riverbends through permafrost terrain.

"The research is part of a larger effort to understand the dynamics of rivers and how they transport carbon, nutrients, and other materials trapped in the soil.

"'River migration has implications for local communities and infrastructure, and also for the Arctic environment,' Lamb says. 'About 1,500 gigatons of #carbon are stored in the frozen permafrost—about twice as much carbon as in the atmosphere, for comparison. There is also #mercury frozen in the soil that could be liberated into rivers as permafrost thaws. We are, ultimately, trying to understand what happens to these elements in the context of river erosion.'

"The work was a collaboration with local Alaska #Native communities, in particular from the town of #Huslia."

Read more:
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/permafrost-thaw-may-cause-arctic-river-erosion-to-speed-up

#GlobalWarming #PermafrostMelt #MercuryPoisoning #CarbonSinks #WaterIsLife #ClimateChange #Arctic #Alaska

#Greenland is getting greener. That could have huge consequences for the world

By Angela Dewan, CNN
Published February 13, 2024

"Warmer air temperatures have driven #IceLoss, which has in turn raised land temperatures. That has caused the melting of #permafrost, a frozen layer just beneath the Earth’s surface and found in much of the #Arctic, and that melt releases planet-warming #CarbonDioxide and #methane, contributing to more #GlobalWarming. #PermafrostMelt is also causing #LandInstability, which could impact infrastructure and buildings.

"'We have seen signs that the loss of ice is triggering other reactions which will result in further loss of ice and further ‘greening’ of Greenland, where shrinking ice exposes bare rock that is then colonized by tundra and eventually shrub,' one of the report’s authors, Jonathan Carrivick, said in a press release. 'At the same time, water released from the melting ice is moving sediment and silt, and that eventually forms wetlands and fenlands.'

"The loss of ice is creating what’s known as a #FeedbackLoop. Snow and ice typically reflect the sun’s energy back into space, preventing excessive heating in parts of the Earth. But as ice disappears, those areas absorb more solar energy, raising land surface temperatures, which can cause further melt and other negative impacts.

"#IceMelt also increases the amount of water in lakes, where water absorbs more heat than snow, which increases land surface temperatures.

"Greenland has been warming at twice the global mean rate since the 1970s, and the study’s authors warn that more extreme temperatures in the future are likely.

"Greenland is the world’s biggest island and is mostly covered by ice and #glaciers. Around 57,000 people live in the country, which is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Much of the population is #indigenous and many people there rely on natural #ecosystems for their survival.

"Michael Grimes, the report’s lead author, said that the flow of sediments and nutrients into coastal waters was particularly problematic for #IndigenousCommunities that rely on fishing, as well as for hunters on other parts of the island.

"'These changes are critical, particularly for the indigenous populations whose traditional subsistence hunting practices rely on the stability of these delicate #ecosystems,' he said.

"'Moreover, the loss of ice mass in Greenland is a substantial contributor to #GlobalSeaLevelRise, a trend that poses significant challenges both now and in the future.'"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/13/climate/greenland-ice-loss-vegetation-climate-intl/index.html

[Short film] Diiyeghan naii Taii Tr’eedaa
(We Will Walk the Trail of our Ancestors)

Princess Daazhraii Johnson with Alisha Carlson (Gwich'in)

"A grandfather teaches his granddaughter, a young Gwich'in mother named Alisha, how reciprocity is embedded in all aspects of life. The northern lights warm the caribou; the caribou helps feed and sustain the community; the community honors the connections. Each element in nature is purposeful and related. In turn, these connections bring new meaning to Alisha and her wishes for her children and for all living beings."

Watch:
https://www.reciprocity.org/films/diiyeghan-naii-taii-treedaa

#DCEFF #IndigenousStorytellers #IndigenousFilms #ReciprocityProject #Reciprocity #IndigenousFilmMakers #IndigenousWisdom #Gwichin #Arctic #TananChatoh

Reconstructing October #Arctic sea ice extent since the year 1850...

You can read more about this data set at https://carbonbrief.org/guest-post-piecing-together-arctic-sea-ice-history-1850

Trends in November #Arctic sea ice thickness over the last four decades. Unsurprisingly, ice is thinning across the entire Arctic Ocean.

Simulated data from PIOMAS. For more information: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0436.1

#Arctic sea ice volume was 54% below the average in this data set for October 2024. The animation shows changes in both sea ice volume (bar) and sea ice thickness (map) in October

+ Graphic available: https://zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice-volumethickness/
+ Data from: https://psc.apl.uw.edu/research/projects/arctic-sea-ice-volume-anomaly/data/

The entire #Arctic Ocean witnessed ice thinner than the 1981-2010 average during October 2024. In fact, for some areas (like north of Greenland), this was several meters less than in decades prior. It's most certainly a new Arctic.

Graphic: https://zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice-volumethickness/. Data from PIOMAS.

November has observed some of the largest trends in the #Arctic, especially over areas with decreasing sea ice cover. Arctic amplification is largest in the boreal fall.

If you see red, that means it's warming...

Data: @CopernicusECMWF ERA5. More info: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0101.1

The light this morning was sublime. #Nunavut #Arctic

#BBCNews - Simon Armitage: Poet laureate on 'life-changing' visit to the #Arctic
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67098028
#ClimateChange #Climate