There has been a great deal of speculation about the possibility that the arctic sea ice could, at the worst case, melt entirely, or more realistic, possibly break the record sea ice melt set last year.
Judge for yourself. This photo with 1 kilometer/pixel resolution was taken yesterday July 12th at 17:05 UTC:
Click for full size image – link to original source image is here
Note that the image above has been rotated, and the annotation for date/time added to make it easier to present here. There is some cloud cover, but if you look carefully, you can determine what is cloud cover and what is sea ice.
Here is the area covered by the AQUA/MODIS satellite on this photo:
The North Pole is visible in the satellite image, and I’ve marked it on the image with a “N” and crosshair.
Now compare to a similar photo from ten days ago:
Image rotated- click for source image.
I’d say we have a ways to go yet before the sea ice melts completely.
Jeh15,
I would guess that in your neck of the woods, very cold Maritime Polar Air aloft during the winter and spring months could trigger an occaisonal funnel cloud. With last year’s moderate-strong La Nina, the polar jetstream was very strong, and very moist/cold air aloft advected into the interior of the Rockies. If the 500mb temps dropped to say -40 deg C and if you factor in the upslope affect of the mountains, you have the ingredients for some pretty intense convection. This is pretty rare for Idaho, but last winter was something you don’t see every year. I heard that the ski slopes were still open in Idaho as late as May, and that some of the higher mountain passes were still being plowed out in June.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/
Has all the products to inform people.
Make sure you check out side by side comp’s of last year, this.
And Last 30 day animations of Arctic ice cover.
Remember that its all ice-area, not volume.
An estimate on Arctic basin ice volume might be in the region of 50% of at this date last year. And this date last year was 50% of the previous year.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/recent365.anom.region.1.html
Will show that the arctic basin ice melt is well ahead of last year in its progress.
Very good chance of it all going completely by mid september. Almost certain IMO.
Jeh15
You talk like climate change is some kind of a new phenomena that had never existed before.
No one is doubting that the climate is changing. What we doubt is the ridiculous claim that it was static until we came along and caused it to change.
Yes it has changed in the Idaho panhandle, and the rest of the world. That’s normal! It’s natural. It’s as green as anything can be.
Climate is always changing. And we are not going to be able to put a thermostat on it.
Finally, why is it that whenever people like you are presented with data that indicates no crisis, you absolutely have to refuse to believe it?
Why is it for you people the only true science is science that calls for the end of the world? Why can’t your life mean anything without a coming doomsday?
All you people do is insist the end of the world is coming. That’s all you want to believe. Optimism makes your stomach roll, doesn’t it?
You need a slap or two in the face…to wake you up from that spell or hypnosis Gore has on you. Think for yourself!
Again I probably wasted 10 minutes of my time responding to you brainwashed zombies.
[snip – I’m sorry, Pierre while I’m in agreement with the point made, this will result in a discussion I really don’t want to have here on this forum. – Anthony]
Lucy Skywalker writes:
“We do have a population issue;”
Actually, we don’t.
I know, I know. But one step at a time. One step at a time. One does not wish to produce an overload . . .
Does anyone really believe that a few persons are able to bring the forces of nature under control, and stabilise our climate so that it is always warm and cuddly? Talk about folly.
I do, actually.
I think that even if AGW turns out to be a real problem, there is a one trillion dollar solution (flexible and adjustable and not involving nuking the atmosphere) that would solve things for all time.
All I know is you can send some of that ice down here to Folsom California because it is hot and the fires around the area send in more and more smoke.
http://www.folsomnative.wordpress.com
Seems like about thirty years or so ago there were predictions of a new ice age coming… Now the ice is supposed to be melting… Maybe there is an ebb and flow of the climate? Great post. Enjoyed the pictures.
Evan,
And your one trillion dollar solution is??
there is an abundance of info about how warming is affecting the arctic. You can’t dispell the diligent, objective work of hundreds of scientists with a picture that supports your desire to keep your head in the sand. Even Wubya gets it now – cant you? and where will your kids live after 10 billion humans trash the place?
Regardless we have to make a change and the faster we do it, the more time we have for it to take effect.
WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!
@jeh15
Listen my friends and you shall hear
Of the year the winds blew and rain was dear
It was the summer of 65
And few remember the sand that darkened the sky
The basin that the Columbia drains
Had not received spring nourishing rains
The sand blew and covered the roads
The tumbleweeds flew through towns in droves
Wildfires burned out of control
Despite the efforts of the fire patrol
The needed rains finely did arrived
Allowing the basin to survive
What appears to be unusual weather may not be that unusual.
I know this has been posted (probably many times) before, but it’s so appropo I can’t resist:
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/obrienj/poetry/hanrahan.html
(link to: SAID HANRAHAN)
AGW’ers should have HANRAHAN branded on their foreheads, starting with Mr. Gore.
Ice melts from the bottom up, you can’t tell from this type of picture how much ice has melted.
I got it! We put a ginormous solar panel off the dark side of the earth in geostationary orbit, say a hundred teraWatts (I don’t know what comes after tera) and MASER the energy back to earth.
Just don’t step in front of the wave guides.
We really should spend our trillions on a really humongous evaporative swamp cooler on the west coast…………….or would that heat things up if there’s more moisture in the air? I’m so confused.
“By the way, looks like there is a lot less ice on the North Pole than existed in prior years. Looks like a lot of bare ground around the edges of that “non melting” ice.”
BARE Ground?
At the North Pole?
You need a better sense of perspective if you think that “bare ground” is near the Pole.
@jeez
“WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!”
I work very hard to increase my carbon footprint to compensate for an anthropomorphic reduction in CO2 level that is starving Gaia’s very own plant life of a necessary trace gas required for the production of sugars.
RJ Hendrickson:
Thanks so much for “Said Hanrahan.” I grew up among lots of Irish immigrants, and that poem captures the Irish character perfectly!
I’ve already sent it to several Irish friends [who interestingly don’t buy into Al Gore’s globaloney].
BTW, here’s an interesting gif showing last year’s change in Northern Hemisphere sea ice: click
Anthony, have you see this, the Russians are leaving the North Pole due to early melting, as always due to global warming.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/07/14/polar.station.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
And your one trillion dollar solution is??
Launch a series of satellites that deploy and maintain large areas of mylar (or something similar in space). Either they are cheap and open up like umbrellas or they fit on wide frames to be assembled in space. Set to orbit so as to continually block sunlight. It could be expanded and retracted as the situation demands. The only issues would be solar wind and the like. “No-tech” and very low maintenance.
This is one of those easy, obvious solutions that has probably already occurred to a zillion scientists (and laymen) and that would simply arise as an obvious solution. If it even becomes necessary–which I doubt.
Probably its greatest practical utility would be to use the idea to shut up the (high-IQ) blithering idiots (of Stern Report infamy) who propose blowing over half a trillion per year (starting now) on highly dubious, further-wealth-annihilating, so-called “solutions”.
That is a great idea. If you’re taking requests, put one of those babies between Victoria, Texas and old man Sol.
Even Wubya gets it now – cant you?
The dubster has you fooled. He has wisely and cleverly kicked the can down the road. Long before his “non-binding proposals” come due we will either a.) realize there was no problem in the first place, or b.) have solved it cheaply, easily, and directly.
Regardless we have to make a change and the faster we do it, the more time we have for it to take effect.
Even stipulating you are right about GW, you are operating from incorrect premises. The sophistication and raw power of our increasing technological capabilities and exploding economic potential are moving ahead far more rapidly than the worst GW scenarios.
I.e., the later we move, the more surely and more powerfully we will move, and the more we will understand the problem and the direction in which to move.