High tech shows low ice in Arctic

The two images above show how much ice has vanished from Greenland & northern Canada in past two years. The left hand shows this summer’s end. The one on the right is from 2005. Images based on satellite images and computer mapping, provided by The National Snow and Ice Data Center.

NSIDC issued its summary reort today on Summer, 2007. The headline: “Arctic Sea Ice Shatters All Previous Record Lows.” The report goes on to quote one researcher at NSIDC, “Computer projections have consistently shown that as global temperatures rise, the sea ice cover will begin to shrink. While a number of natural factors have certainly contributed to the overall decline in sea ice, the effects of greenhouse warming are now coming through loud and clear.”

The report also goes on proclaim the opening of the Northwest Passage from Europe to the northern Pacific. But it does warn it’s too soon for shippers to send their big boats through.

With all the great satellite data and computer enhanced images, we are getting an unprecendented view of this global change. Imagine if they’d had our gear back when Krakatoa’s eruption blanketed the earth in voloanic ash. One researcher said this summer’s Arctic ice melt was so extreme that he is worreid he may lose his field of study. I suggest he move to something more long-term, say dodo hunting. Though desert exploration promises to be a growing field as well.

Canada is following all this Arctic upheaval at close quarters. Much of their northern coast is in for major changes. They have this site which is monitoring the southward drift of two ice islands, which were once a single big sheet. They are the two remnants of Ayles Ice Island which broke free of Ayles Ice Sheet only in 2005. The original floating ice had the same surface area as Manhattan, but with a much smaller population. Back in 2005 Canadian scientists used computers to search seismic records and pinpoint the actual hour the ice first calved from the ice sheet on Ellesmere Island.