Arctic Updates

[Ben D]

Yeah, just like in 98. I think your on to something Ben. Great researching that. Gives me the chills just thinking about it, how about you?

Who's talking about research? This thread is Arctic Updates, if you don't like my posting updates on the increase in Arctic ice extent this year or whatever then so be it, but it's still a fact. As to what happens next year, I don't have a clue and merely wait for the sands of time to pass through the hour glass to actually find out.

However Iamwhomiam, if it is the Prof. Oleg Pokrovsky article that is getting to you, then first be clear that I never implied that I was in agreement with the contents, but that all the claims and counter claims about the Arctic were not to be seen as examples of pure objective science, though secondly in hind sight I do apologize for posting it regardless, for it was not really relevant to this thread. While on my first quick read I thought it was about the Arctic, but reading it more thoroughly it seems he is actually referring to overall global climate change with just a tenuous link relevant to the Arctic in that a cooler climate will hamper research for Arctic mineral deposits there.

[wintler2]

You posted last years data Wintler2, so here is an Arctic Update. You will be pleased to note that 2nd and beyond year old ice has increased.

BenD is correct, there does seem to be a tiny uptick in this years extent of 2 year ice. The overall trend remains clearly a decline in older ice.

He didn't attempt to support the Russian professors claim of cooling since 1998, i take it he wishes to distance himself from that claim.

[Ben D]

You posted last years data Wintler2, so here is an Arctic Update. You will be pleased to note that 2nd and beyond year old ice has increased.

BenD is correct, there does seem to be a tiny uptick in this years extent of 2 year ice. The overall trend remains clearly a decline in older ice.

He didn't attempt to support the Russian professors claim of cooling since 1998, i take it he wishes to distance himself from that claim.

Wintler2, thank you acknowledging the uptick of 2 year + ice but the graph also shows an overall increase in older ice by about 4% over the last year, not a decline.

Concerning the planets post 1998 cooling claims and counter claims, I will be patient and see how the years ahead unfold.

[Hammer of Los]

Ben D, your posts are marvellous!

So much better than my rambling paranoid nonsense!

As to what happens next year, I don't have a clue and merely wait for the sands of time to pass through the hour glass to actually find out.

Well, quite.

I shouldn't have gone muddying the waters with typical smears by association, or connecting dots as it is sometimes called.

Actually, I apologise for that.

[wintler2]

BenD is correct, there does seem to be a tiny uptick in this years extent of 2 year ice. The overall trend remains clearly a decline in older ice.

Wintler2, thank you acknowledging the uptick of 2 year + ice but the graph also shows an overall increase in older ice by about 4% over the last year, not a decline.

An increase in last year, y - e - s. Overall trend (multi-year) is decline, yes?

Concerning the planets post 1998 cooling claims and counter claims, I will be patient and see how the years ahead unfold.

The years ahead will tell you about 1998-2010? Wacky.

Your Russian professors claim of cooling is nothing more than words on a moonie media-front website, science asks a little more than that. The arctic temperature data showing warming that i linked to is available for download, along with metadata and references to published papers detailing its origins and use. I'm incredulous that you can characterise that as "claim and counterclaim". Its very thin propaganda vs. evidence. Where are your standards man!

[Ben D]

Friend Hammer of Los, I'm honored and humbled, thank you. However I don't agree with your self assessment for you are in deed an excellent poster and I almost always get something worthwhile out of your posts.

Don't expect however that you will get the respect or latitude you deserve from he who will remain unnamed, for he appears to conduct his life on the principle that those who are not 100% in agreement with him are against him, and does battle accordingly. No amount of explanation that there exists or even could exist another position beyond the strict dualistic doctrine to which he adheres, appears to temper his temper.

[Ben D]

Wintler2, hope you don't mind that I pass at this point for my time is valued and you will find I have already covered the relevant issues in my previous posts, but it is up to you to do the work for I'm not going to keep explaining myself.

However if it is the last word you want,...

[wintler2]

Migrating birds sometimes find no food, mismatched environment

JANE GEORGE
April 25, 2010 Nunatsiaq Online



As Arctic temperatures warm and weather becomes less predictable, migratory birds may face new challenges and some nasty surprises when they return north, researchers with the Canadian Wildlife Service say.

Sometimes birds arrive at their northern breeding grounds earlier than they used to, driven by warm weather in the South, only to find no food there when they arrive.

And, once they’re in the Arctic, increasingly unpredictable weather can cause them another lot of misery.

Due to higher than average temperatures in many parts of Nunavut this past winter, birds are already flocking back to the High Arctic.

In Cambridge Bay, where Environment Canada says temperatures were five to six degrees above normal this past winter, and warm again into March and April, snow buntings have returned — a full month earlier than usual.
..

[Jeff]

Ancient artifacts revealed as northern ice patches melt

April 26, 2010

High in the Mackenzie Mountains, scientists are finding a treasure trove of ancient hunting tools being revealed as warming temperatures melt patches of ice that have been in place for thousands of years.

Tom Andrews, an archaeologist with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife and lead researcher on the International Polar Year Ice Patch Study, is amazed at the implements being discovered by researchers.

"We're just like children opening Christmas presents. I kind of pinch myself," says Andrews.

Ice patches are accumulations of annual snow that, until recently, remained frozen all year. For millennia, caribou seeking relief from summer heat and insects have made their way to ice patches where they bed down until cooler temperatures prevail. Hunters noticed caribou were, in effect, marooned on these ice islands and took advantage.

"I'm never surprised at the brilliance of ancient hunters anymore. I feel stupid that we didn't find this sooner," says Andrews.

Ice patch archeology is a recent phenomenon that began in Yukon. In 1997, sheep hunters discovered a 4,300-year-old dart shaft in caribou dung that had become exposed as the ice receded. Scientists who investigated the site found layers of caribou dung buried between annual deposits of ice. They also discovered a repository of well-preserved artifacts.

Andrews first became aware of the importance of ice patches when word about the Yukon find started leaking out. "We began wondering if we had the same phenomenon here."

In 2000, he cobbled together funds to buy satellite imagery of specific areas in the Mackenzie Mountains and began to examine ice patches in the region. Five years later, he had raised enough to support a four-hour helicopter ride to investigate two ice patches. The trip proved fruitful.

"Low and behold, we found a willow bow." That discovery led to a successful application for federal International Polar Year funds which have allowed an interdisciplinary team of researchers to explore eight ice patches for four years.

The results have been extraordinary. Andrews and his team have found 2400-year-old spear throwing tools, a 1000-year-old ground squirrel snare, and bows and arrows dating back 850 years. Biologists involved in the project are examining dung for plant remains, insect parts, pollen and caribou parasites. Others are studying DNA evidence to track the lineage and migration patterns of caribou. Andrews also works closely with the Shutaot'ine or Mountain Dene, drawing on their guiding experience and traditional knowledge.

"The implements are truly amazing. There are wooden arrows and dart shafts so fine you can't believe someone sat down with a stone and made them."

Andrews is currently in a race against time. His IPY funds have run out and he is keenly aware that each summer, the patches continue to melt. In fact, two of the eight original patches have already disappeared.

"We realize that the ice patches are continuing to melt and we have an ethical obligation to collect these artifacts as they are exposed," says Andrews. If left on the ground, exposed artifacts would be trampled by caribou or dissolved by the acidic soils. "In a year or two the artifacts would be gone."


http://www.physorg.com/news191503421.html

[Jeff]

Arctic explorers get nasty surprise -- rain

Yesterday, 06:05 pm, Reuters

In what looks to be another sign the Arctic is heating up quickly, British explorers in Canada's Far North reported on Tuesday that they had been hit by a three-minute rain shower over the weekend.

The rain fell on the team's ice base off Ellef Rignes island, about 3,900 km (2,420 miles) north of the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

"It's definitely a shocker ... the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event," said Pen Hadow, the team's expedition director.

"Scientists would tell us that we can expect increasingly to experience these sorts of outcomes as the climate warms," he told Reuters in a telephone interview from London.

The Arctic is heating up three times more quickly than the rest of the Earth. Scientists link the higher temperatures to the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Tyler Fish, a polar guide at the base, said the rain fell after temperatures had been rising for a couple of days.

"I think we were disappointed. Rain isn't something you expect in the Arctic and a lot of us came up here to be away from that kind of weather," he said.

"We worry that if it's too warm maybe some of the scientific samples will start to thaw ... or the food will get too warm and spoil," he told Reuters by satellite phone.

Hadow said a Canadian scientific camp about 145 km west of the ice base had been hit by rain at the same time.

...

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100427/ts ... 1ccfa.html

[tazmic]

The average temperature in Isachsen, Ellef Ringnes Island, Nunavut, Canada is -19.0 °C (-2 °F).
The average temperature range is 39.5 °C.
The highest monthly average high temperature is 6 °C (43 °F) in July.
The lowest monthly average low temperature is -39 °C (-38 °F) in January & February.

Isachsen, Ellef Ringnes Island, Nunavut's climate receives an average of 93 mm (3.7 in) of rainfall per year, or 8 mm (0.3 in) per month.
On average there are 76 days per year with more than 0.1 mm (0.004 in) of rainfall (precipitation) or 6 days with a quantity of rain, sleet, snow etc. per month.
The driest weather is in January, February, March & December when an average of 2 mm (0.1 in) of rainfall (precipitation) occurrs across days.
The wettest weather is in August when an average of 20 mm (0.8 in) of rainfall (precipitation) occurrs across 10 days.
The average annual relative humidity is 75.4% and average monthly relative humidity ranges from 57% in March to 88% in August & September.

[norton ash]

North Pole rainfall 'bizarre': climatologist

Last Updated: Thursday, April 29, 2010 | 4:22 PM CT Comments26Recommend13CBC News

Spring showers are next to non-existent in the High Arctic, so Environment Canada's senior climatologist says he's baffled to hear that it rained near the North Pole this week.

A group of British scientists working off Ellef Ringnes Island, near the North Pole, reported being hit with a three-minute rain shower over the weekend. The group reported the rain on Tuesday.

Rain in the High Arctic in April is nothing short of bizarre, said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

"My business is weird, wild and wacky weather, and this is up there among fish falling from the sky or Niagara Falls running dry," Phillips told CBC News in an interview that aired Thursday.

"I mean, it really is strange. You just don't expect it to rain in the High Arctic in April; maybe in July and August. And certainly for these scientists from Europe coming over, they must have been also mystified."

Phillips said 50 to 60 years of historical weather data show no signs of rainfall ever occurring in April in the High Arctic.

The earliest account of measurable rainfall at Canadian Forces Station Alert took place on May 21, 1988, he said.

At a weather station on Ellef Ringnes Island, where the scientists were conducting their experiments, Phillips said the earliest measured rainfall was on June 7, 1975.

"For the end of April, it is really bizarre," he said.

Climate change research
The scientific group was on Ellef Ringnes Island as part of the Catlin Arctic Survey, which is gathering data on the effects of climate change on the Arctic Ocean.

The researchers have been working on determining the amount of carbon dioxide that's trapped in the ocean.

"It's definitely a shocker … the general feeling within the polar community is that rainfall in the high Canadian Arctic in April is a freak event," Pen Hadow, the team's expedition director, told Reuters in an interview from London this week.

"Scientists would tell us that we can expect increasingly to experience these sorts of outcomes as the climate warms."

Tyler Fish, a polar guide at the base, said the rain fell after temperatures had been rising for a couple of days.

"I think we were disappointed. Rain isn't something you expect in the Arctic and a lot of us came up here to be away from that kind of weather," he told Reuters.

"We worry that if it's too warm maybe some of the scientific samples will start to thaw ... or the food will get too warm and spoil."

Phillips said it would be difficult to tell how much rain had fallen, as the scientists probably did not bring rain gauges with them.

Environment Canada meteorologists will examine weather patterns to try to understand the unusual rainfall, he said.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/20 ... z0mbo6ymrH

[Iamwhomiam]

Ben D wrote:

Who's talking about research? This thread is Arctic Updates, if you don't like my posting updates on the increase in Arctic ice extent this year or whatever then so be it, but it's still a fact. As to what happens next year, I don't have a clue and merely wait for the sands of time to pass through the hour glass to actually find out.

This thread is about arctic update, you say. Really?

I hope you'll pardon me for a moment while I shed my Buddhist beliefs momentarily and re-cloak myself in my 'Jesus will forgive me' Christian past in order to better answer you... OK, here goes…

I could have sworn it was the "Ben D has his head up his ass" thread.

You've criticized others here now going on for years, accusing them of things you yourself have done repeatedly throughout this string as if you and your cut & paste articles and charts establish you as some sort of authority on this topic, which you most clearly are not.

I don't have either the time or the energy to devote to waste on you, but I'll allow myself this one last time and perhaps, once again, should you respond to this in some meaningful way.

Remember saying this back on Fri Nov 07, 2008?:

"To have full confidence in these satellite images, one needs to be provided with all the associated technical information involved in the data collection, and to have the technical and scientific understanding to do a proper analysis to then determine if the researcher has done real science or is merely 'cherry picking' selective parameters of the full suite of remote sensed data available, of say a NOAA sun-sychronized polar orbiting weather satellite."

So why is it you omitted the caption associated with 'Arctic Sea Ice Change 2009 to 2010' which prompted my chilling response to your post?

This, the missing caption:

"Figure 6. These images show the change in ice age from fall 2009 to spring 2010. The negative Arctic Oscillation this winter slowed the export of older ice out of the Arctic. As a result, the percentage of ice older than two years was greater at the end of March 2010 than over the past few years."

Just didn't think it was important enough, or was it that it showed that the 'oscillation', the current was weak and the ice that should have drifted away didn't? So much so for your "uptick".

Odd, isn't it that you "cherry pick" what you want, thinking it supports your absurdist viewpoint while ignoring other information on the same page that refutes your position.

Like this chart found above the aforementioned one showing the "uptick":

20100406_Figure3_thumb.png

And that goes for you to, tazmic. By the way t, you should replace that placid avatar with a skull & crossed bones; it would better suit you.

I spend my days educating legislators, policy makers and the public trying to undo the damage your profoundly damaging propaganda has done, which has had the effect of slowing our ability to achieve a sustainable future, perhaps to the point of dooming all.

As wintler2 said so long ago, back on Sun Nov 09, 2008

"Ben D is a pro-polluter spammer and i am saddened that RI's moderators are fine with him using this board as a broadcast medium."

Not to diminish credit due those who've attempted to overcome you nonsense with science, the one of the best posts in this thread was by the_last_name_left back on Sun Dec 21, 2008:

"I don't know why the precautionary principle is so hard to grasp..."

The Wingspread definition of the Precautionary Principle must be applied to whatever paradigm replaces the failed system we now operate under, if we are lucky enough to survive the coming resource wars.

[Ben D]

I spend my days educating legislators, policy makers and the public trying to undo the damage your profoundly damaging propaganda has done, which has had the effect of slowing our ability to achieve a sustainable future, perhaps to the point of dooming all.

Dear Iamwhomiam, sorry to have been the cause of disturbance to your Buddhist serenity, but remind you that as a Buddhist you should understand Samsara and the suffering that comes from attachments. Samsara is the cyclical world of suffering produced by the mind which clings to the objects of perception in a constant round of desire, ignorance and anger. As such it is a distorted, confused view which will only ever come to an end with the realization of enlightenment.

BTW, it is hoped that you are doing this educational task as a charity for if you have a pecuniary interest, the attachment will be so much more difficult to transcend.

I am whom I am too.

[Iamwhomiam]

Again, you miss the point and again you ignore pertinent questions put to you only to cherry pick a completely irrelevant point to comment upon. What is perfectly clear is your uncanny innate ability to add to the world's suffering with your "distorted, confused view", Hungry Ghost that you are.

Omm.......