Akureyri, Iceland

SM Komarova

“New points of political instability are another challenge for the world’s Arctic and northern regions; they aggravate the need for effective international and interregional communication platforms”.

 

Natalia Komarova,

Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug–Yugra

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The volume of Arctic sea ice increased by around a third after an unusually cool summer in 2013.

Researchers say the growth continued in 2014 and more than compensated for losses recorded in the three previous years.

The scientists involved believe changes in summer temperatures have greater impacts on ice than thought.

But they say 2013 was a one-off and that climate change will continue to shrink the ice in the decades ahead.

 


Turn up the volume

The Arctic region has warmed more than most other parts of the planet over the past 30 years. Satellite observations have documented a decrease of around 40% in the extent of sea ice cover in the Arctic since 1980. But while the extent of the retreating ice has been well recorded, the key indicator that scientists want to understand is the loss of sea ice volume. Researchers have been able to use data gathered by Europe's Cryosat satellite over the past five years to answer this question.

This polar monitoring spacecraft has a sophisticated radar system that allows scientists to accurately estimate the volume. The researchers used 88 million measurements of sea ice  84379222 tillingetal2015pic2thickness from Cryosat and found that between 2010 and 2012, the volume of sea ice went down by 14%. They published their initial findings at the end of 2013 - but have now refined and updated them to include data from 2014 as well. Relative to the average of the period between 2010 and 2012, the scientists found that there was a 33% increase in sea ice volume in 2013, while in 2014 there was still a quarter more sea ice than there was between 2010 and 2012.

"We looked at various climate forcing factors, we looked at the snow loading, we looked at wind convergence and the melt season length of the previous summer," lead author Rachel Tilling, from University College London, told BBC News. "We found that the the highest correlation by far was with the melt season length - and over the summer of 2013, it was the coolest of the five years we have seen, and we believe that's why there was more multi-year ice left at the end of summer."

The researchers found the colder temperatures allowed more multi-year ice to persist north-west of Greenland because there were simply fewer days when it could melt. Temperature records indicate that the summer was about 5% cooler than 2012.

The scientists believe that the more accurate measurements that they have now published show that sea ice is more sensitive to changes than previously thought. They argue that while some could see this as a positive, when temperatures are cooler it leads to an increase in sea ice, it could also be a negative when the mercury goes up.

"It would suggest that sea ice is more resilient perhaps - if you get one year of cooler temperatures, we've almost wound the clock back a few years on this gradual decline that's been happening over decades," said Rachel Tilling.

"The long-term trend of the ice volume is downwards and the long-term trend of the temperatures in the Arctic is upwards and this finding doesn't give us any reason to disbelieve that - as far as we can tell it's just one anomalous year."

The updated data has been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

 

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33594654

28 Dec 2024
The Northern Forum attended the opening ceremony of the Tattinsky Lyceum's new building

 

Today, 28 December, the Northern Forum took part in the opening ceremony of the new building of the A.E. Mordinov Tattinsky Lyceum in the village of Ytyk-Kyuel in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

News
27 Dec 2024
Senator and former head of Yakutia Egor Borisov became a Goodwill Ambassador of the Northern Forum

 

Member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation - representative of the executive branch of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Deputy Chairman of the Federation [ ... ]

Northern Forum
27 Dec 2024
Vladimir Vasiliev took part in Commission on Compatriots Living Abroad Meeting

 

On Thursday, 26 December, Vladimir Vasiliev, Executive Director of the Northern Forum, took part in a meeting of the Commission on Compatriots Living Abroad under the Government of Khanty-Mansiysk [ ... ]

News
27 Dec 2024
Northern Forum calls for joint response to man-made disaster

 

As a result of the disaster of two tankers in the Black Sea, there is an emergency situation in the sea and on the coast.

News
27 Dec 2024
Restart Mentors Union in search of volunteers for regional resource centres

 

On Wednesday, 25 December, a productive meeting was held with Tatiana Menshikova, Chair of the Northern Forum's Arctic Tourism Working Group.

News
23 Dec 2024
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025!

News

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5th Northern Sustainable Development Forum

September 24-27, 2024
Yakutsk, Russia

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Goal of the NYF is to promote the interests and views of young people in solving the problems facing the Northern Forum by using the potential of international youth cooperation.