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80,000 Yrs of Arctic Ice Melted in Single Weekend

80,000 Yrs of Arctic Ice Melted in Single Weekend

via Watts Up With That?
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News Brief by Kip Hansen

 

No, really…no kidding here…this is a real disaster.   This is not Fake News!

Here’s the story, from the NY Times’ Tatiana Schlossberg (and here):

“Ice from the Canadian Arctic has completely melted, leaving puddles of water in its place and scientists devastated.

O.K., this is what actually happened: Ice cores, millennia-old ice samples extracted by scientists from locations across the Canadian Arctic, melted because of a freezer malfunction in a lab at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The loss of these ice cores could hinder scientific research into how changes in the atmosphere have shaped Earth’s climate history, and how they could affect its future.

On April 2, the temperature of a storage freezer in the Canadian Ice Core Archive rose to about 100 degrees —… “

Now that’s Arctic warming — 100 degrees (F?) in a storage freezer?

“…some part of the cooling system failed, “then tried to get itself back into action and in the process, piped hot air back into the room,” according to Martin Sharp, the director of the archive. The freezer became so hot that it tripped the fire alarm, Dr. Sharp said, and partially or fully melted 180 ice cores collected by government scientists since the mid-1970s from the snowy expanse of the Canadian Arctic.

Dr. Sharp, also a glaciology professor at the university, said there was water all over the floor, and steam rising from puddles of ancient water.”

Luckily, although there were 12 complete cores, comprising more than 1,400 one-meter segments, which were believed to cover about 80,000 years of atmospheric history, “none of the 12 main cores were wholly destroyed.”  They did lose about 12% of the total collection.

The loss of this important repository of ice cores and the data that could be extracted from it is regrettable.  We are assured that steps are being taken to prevent any future loss.

My sympathies go out to the Canadian Ice Core Archive, Dr. Martin Sharp, its Director, and the many scientists who work will be hampered by this sad event.

via Watts Up With That? http://ift.tt/1Viafi3

April 13, 2017 at 02:00AM

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Unexpected Evergreen Expansion In Siberian Forest During The Global Warming Hiatus

Unexpected Evergreen Expansion In Siberian Forest During The Global Warming Hiatus

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

Unexpected evergreen expansion in the Siberian forest under warming hiatus

Abstract: Siberia has experienced a pronounced warming over the past several decades, which has induced an increase in the extent of evergreen conifer forest. However, the potential slowing of the trend of increasing surface air temperature (SAT) has produced intense debate since the late 1990s. During this warming hiatus, the Siberia region experienced a significant cooling during the winter season around ten times that of the North Hemisphere (NH) as a whole. This potentially stresses evergreen conifer forests because cooler winters can cause cold-temperature damage and, hence, increase the mortality in young evergreen conifer forests. In this study, the response of Siberian forest composition during the warming hiatus was investigated using satellite observations coupled with model simulations. Observations indicated that from 2001 to 2012, the apparent area of evergreen conifer forest has increased by 10%, while that of the deciduous conifer forest has decreased by 40%. The transition from deciduous to evergreen conifer forest usually occurs through mixed forest or woody savannas as a buffer. To verify the response of evergreen conifer forest, model experiments were performed using an individual-based forest model. Hysteresis of forest change seen in the model simulations indicates that changes in forest composition dynamics under temperature oscillations induced by internal climate variability may not reverse this composition change. As a result, the evergreen conifer forest expansion under climate warming is expected to be a continuing process despite the occurrence of a warming hiatus, exerting far-reaching implications for climate-change-induced albedo shifts in the Siberian forest.

Full paper

see also – Cold war-era spy satellite images reveal significant greening of Siberian Tundra

siberia

A July 1966 U.S. spy satellite photo of Arctic tundra in the western Taymyr Peninsula and a July 2009 commercial satellite image of the same location shows considerable expansion of vegetation during the 43-year interval. Credit: University of Virginia

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union routinely spied on each other using high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and space satellites.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. declassified tens of thousands of images obtained from its two major spy satellite programs, Corona and Gambit. Many of these highly detailed photographs, taken from 1960 through 1984, are of the massive and relatively little-studied western Siberian tundra. The government was looking for military installations and nuclear arsenals, but it found mostly undeveloped, wild terrain.

It occurred to University of Virginia environmental scientists that the imagery is a storehouse of information for better understanding how vegetation in tundra regions may be altering as a result of  and other factors.

“These spy images are a gold mine as a reference point,” environmental sciences professor Howie Epstein said.

He oversaw a study comparing old spy photographs from 1960 into the 1980s with environmental images of the same terrain made in more recent years from commercial satellite sensors. “We are able to look at the exact same locations, in close detail, across several decades,” he said.

Epstein and his graduate student, Gerald Frost, who conducted the study as part of his Ph.D. dissertation, tracked 11 sites in Siberia through half a century of imagery, and were able to distinguish the expansion of tall shrubs such as alder, willow, birch and dwarf pine. They found that tall shrubs and trees had expanded their range in some areas by up to 26 percent since the 1960s, though the overall expansion was less dramatic.

Full post

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

April 13, 2017 at 01:39AM

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Second Thing To Know About Climate Change–Nat Geographic

Second Thing To Know About Climate Change–Nat Geographic

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
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By Paul Homewood

 

image

image

 

 

They fail to explain why global temperatures fell between 1940 and 1980, at the same time as CO2 emissions were rising rapidly.

 

They also forget to mention the role that the great ocean cycles played in 20thC warming. The post 1940 cool down coincided with the shift of both PDO and AMO to cold phase.

Similarly post 1980 warming was in large part the result of a return to warm phase for both cycles.

 

 

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via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

April 13, 2017 at 01:00AM

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OPEC Production Keeps Declining as U.S. Shale Surges

OPEC Production Keeps Declining as U.S. Shale Surges

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

OPEC said Wednesday its output had kept falling in March as members tightened compliance to agreed cuts, but said U.S. producers were enjoying a revival thanks to higher oil prices.

The 13-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries committed last year to cut about 1.2 million barrels of oil a day in a bid to bring a vast global oversupply of crude back in line with demand and raise petroleum prices.

The agreement helped raise oil prices about 20% after it was announced on Nov. 30. Russia and 10 other non-OPEC producers also pledged to trim another 558,000 barrels a day.

In its closely watched monthly oil report, OPEC said its production decreased by 153,000 barrels a day to an average of 31.93 million barrels a day. The group uses independent experts—such as analysts and shipping trackers—to assess its output.

The decrease was largely driven by lower production in the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, respectively by 33,000 barrels a day and 26,000 barrels a day—which have both committed to reduce their output.

Three OPEC nations exempted from the cuts also suffered production losses. Libyan production fell in March by 61,000 barrels a day after its largest oil field, Sharara, was blocked by guards over wage arrears. Nigeria, which fields are producing less due to maintenance and sabotage, saw its output falling by 30,000 barrels a day while Iran, which is struggling to sell its oil due to U.S. banking sanctions, lost 29,000 barrels a day.

But Saudi Arabia, which has carried the brunt of the effort so far, increased its production by 42,000 barrels a day according to independent experts used by OPEC. However, its output remains below its quota of about 10 million barrels a day.

Full story

 

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

April 12, 2017 at 11:37PM