Arctic sea ice, a key component of Earth’s natural thermostat, has thinned sharply in recent years, with the northern polar ice cap shrinking steadily in surface area, government scientists said on Monday.
Thinner seasonal sea ice, which melts in the summer and freezes in the fall, now accounts for about 70 percent of the total in the Arctic, up from 40 percent to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s, the researchers said, citing new satellite data.
At the same time, thicker ice, which lasts two summers or more without melting, now comprises less than 10 percent of the northern polar ice cap in winter, down from 30 to 40 percent. Just two years ago, the thicker, so-called perennial sea ice made up 20 percent or more of the winter cap.
Scientists have voiced concerns for years about an alarming decline in the size of the Arctic ice cap, which functions as a giant air conditioner for the planet’s climate system by reflecting sunlight into space.
As a greater portion of the ice melts, it is replaced by darker sea water that absorbs much more sunlight, thus adding to the warming of the planet attributed to rising levels of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by human activity.
“The ice cover plays a key role in the climate,” Thomas Wagner, chief snow and ice scientist for NASA, said in a conference call with reporters. “The thicker ice particularly is very important, because it’s the thicker ice that survives the summer to stay around and reflect that summer sunlight.”
Walter Meir of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, said: “We’re getting an ice cover as we finish the winter and head into summer that’s much more vulnerable to the summer melt and much more likely to melt completely and expose that dark ocean.”
The decade-long trend of a contracting ice cap around the North Pole is continuing as well.
The maximum extent of Arctic sea ice this winter was measured at 15.2 million square kilometers, the fifth-lowest winter peak on record. That tally represents a loss of some 720,000km² — about the size of Texas — from the winter peak average between 1979 and 2000.
The six lowest measurements since satellite monitoring began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years.
Meir said a strong consensus has emerged among climate scientists that the Arctic is headed for its first largely ice-free summer in the relatively near future, with forecasts running as early as 2013, though he sees that as too soon.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS