Posted on 02/16/2008 10:26:17 PM PST by neverdem
There's an upside to the extreme cold temperatures northern Canadians have endured in the last few weeks: scientists say it's been helping winter sea ice grow across the Arctic, where the ice shrank to record-low levels last year.
Temperatures have stayed well in the -30s C and -40s C range since late January throughout the North, with the mercury dipping past -50 C in some areas.
Satellite images are showing that the cold spell is helping the sea ice expand in coverage by about 2 million square kilometres, compared to the average winter coverage in the previous three years.
"It's nice to know that the ice is recovering," Josefino Comiso, a senior research scientist with the Cryospheric Sciences Branch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, told CBC News on Thursday.
"That means that maybe the perennial ice would not go down as low as last year."
Canadian scientists are also noticing growing ice coverage in most areas of the Arctic, including the southern Davis Strait and the Beaufort Sea.
"Clearly, we're seeing the ice coverage rebound back to more near normal coverage for this time of year," said Gilles Langis, a senior ice forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa.
Winter sea ice could keep expanding The cold is also making the ice thicker in some areas, compared to recorded thicknesses last year, Lagnis added.
"The ice is about 10 to 20 centimetres thicker than last year, so that's a significant increase," he said.
If temperatures remain cold this winter, Langis said winter sea ice coverage will continue to expand.
But he added that it's too soon to say what impact this winter will have on the Arctic summer sea ice, which reached its lowest coverage ever recorded in the summer of 2007.
That was because the thick multi-year ice pack that survives a summer melt has been decreasing in recent years, as well as moving further south. Langis said the ice pack is currently located about 130 kilometres from the Mackenzie Delta, about half the distance from where it was last year.
The polar regions are a concern to climate specialists studying global warming, since those regions are expected to feel the impact of climate change sooner and to a greater extent than other areas.
Sea ice in the Arctic helps keep those regions cool by reflecting sunlight that might otherwise be absorbed by darker ocean or land surfaces.
That Algore’s been a busy man with his slide show...
Um...it’s WINTER.
Damn the logic...
It's called Winter, Langis, you idiot!
Get with the program. It's climate change nee global warming.
Who decides it's an upside? What if the residents there long to someday plant a citrus tree outside the house? Maybe have a longer baseball season?
Upside is in the eye of the beholder.
Darn: Getting colder. In winter.
Ice freezing. Er, no. Water freezing. Ice not melting.
What is "normal"? Aren't these scientist aware of cyclical ice ages and interglacial periods?
So many people are such worrywarts on the climate issue. I lived in tropical weather for quite a few years and don’t like it all. Dry cold and 40 degree (F) daily temperature variations are very nice.
Winter! It’s not just for skiing anymore. =8^O
Just Another Inconvenient Fact
Do they ever get to the point in the article where they say why ice is nice?
From the part of the article posted, it seems they presume we all know and believe.
This could actually be a bad sign....IIRC...we have record ice in the antarctic....wouldnt MORE ice be a sign of cooling?
Call me crazy...
These people are total dipshits. I never ever listen to a single thing someone has to tell me about global warming.
Useless hype for cash.
Unbelievable nonsense.
Translation...recent findings by scientists who do not have an anti-American bias and agenda are making it harder for us to get into the wallets of American tax payers. The attempts at limiting free speech and thought are becoming increasingly more difficult. It will benefit us at this time, to wait till the Liberal Democratic Party gains control of the United States Government.
(I live where the glaciers ended in N. America during the last (current) ice age. Glaciers can do a whole lot of damage---besides they're cold as hell.)
Send your money to Al Gore.
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