Melting Ice in the Arctic Sea
National Polar and Ocean Research Center (NCPOR) has found a dramatic decrease in Arctic sea ice due to global warming. Due to the decrease in sea ice, there has been an increase in evaporation, air humidity, cloud cover and rainfall locally. Arctic sea ice is a sensitive indicator of climate change and has strong countervailing effects on other components of the climate system.
NCPOR has noted that the largest decline in Arctic sea ice in the last 41 years occurred in July 2019. Over the last 40 years (1979–2018), sea ice has been declining at a rate of -4.7 percent per decade, while its rate of decline was found to be -13 percent in July 2019. If this trend continues, there will be no ice left in the Arctic sea by 2050, which will prove to be dangerous for humanity and the entire environment.
The study also revealed that the decline in Arctic sea ice and an increase in the summer and autumn seasons have affected the local weather and climate over the Arctic sea. The decline in Arctic sea ice cover is a sensitive indicator of climate change, has had strong feedback effects on other components of the climate system, such as heat and momentum, water vapour and other material exchanges between the atmosphere and the ocean. The worrying fact is that the amount of ice formation during the winter has been unable to keep pace with the amount of snow loss during the summer.
In the summer of 2019, the prevalence of sea ice volume and the rapid decline in sea ice volume prevailed, with the Northern Hemisphere also experiencing record high temperatures, especially during the spring and summer seasons.
The lack of sea ice at this rate, which is related to all living organisms on Earth, can have a very devastating effect due to rising global air temperature and slowing of global ocean water circulation.
What is the Arctic?
Just as the area around the South Pole on Earth is called Antarctica, similarly the area around the North Pole of the Earth i.e. the northern region of the Arctic Circle is called the Arctic. It covers about 1/6 of the earth. The Arctic region includes the Earth's the North Pole, the Arctic or North Polar Ocean surrounding the Pole, and the eight Arctic countries associated with it, Canada, Greenland, Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
The Arctic Ocean is partially covered with a large layer of ice throughout the year and is almost completely covered with ice during the winter. The temperature and salinity of this ocean vary according to the weather, as its ice melts and freezes. It has the lowest average salinity of the five major oceans and melts nearly 50% of its ice during summer.
The unexpected melting of Arctic ice
Since the Arctic Resilience report came out on 25 November 2016, there has been a stir in the entire geological world. This report has been prepared on the basis of data from the research of 11 institutions of the Arctic Council and six world-class universities. This report has shown unexpected results from global warming on Arctic Ocean ice.
According to the report's data, the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean is shrinking and Arctic sea ice has decreased by 1.6 lakh sq km in the period between 16 to 19 November 2016. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, on 16 November 2016, Arctic sea ice expansion was 86.74 lakh km which decreased to 86.25 lakh km on 20 November 2016. This means that during these four days of November, Arctic sea ice decreased by 49000 sq km.
According to records recorded by the Danish Meteorological Institute, asymmetries of temperatures up to 20 ° C have been found at many places in the Arctic. A review of records has found the average temperature of the Arctic on November 19, 2016, to be about 7.3 degrees Celsius higher than the 1979–2000 temperature. Statistics also show that the Arctic snow expansion was 28.5 percent below average in October 2016, the lowest ever.
Hot water is reaching the Arctic Ocean. In fact, in the year 2016, offshore hot water of North America was pushed towards the Arctic Ocean during the northern summer by the Coriolis force. Although it took several months for this hot water to move along the Gulf Stream through the North Atlantic, it is probably now absorbed into the warm Arctic Ocean. According to the report, this hot water first approached Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean on October 31, 2016, and the temperature there was 17 ° C, much higher than the average of 13.9 ° C in the thirty years between 1981 and 2011.
Impact of melting snow in the Arctic region
The Arctic Council report also mentions in detail the major impacts on the zoologists, planters, fishes, marine mammals, birds, landmarks, flora and humans of the Arctic region due to global warming. Definitely worrisome. The darker vegetation of the Arctic tundra region becoming snowless, where on one hand is absorbing more heat after the rise in temperature, on the other hand, due to changes in snow distribution, the oceans are also warming and the effects of changes in climate trends are remote. Are affecting the monsoon up to Asia. Likewise, with the decline in significant Arctic fisheries, marine ecosystems around the world are beginning to be affected.
Along with the Arctic, Antarctic ice will also melt and sea levels will rise. Many species will be lost due to this. It is estimated that 20 million out of one crore species will be lost forever. According to the biological history of the Earth, it has happened five times in the last 50 million years on the earth that most of the fauna species have become extinct from the earth. Probably due to global warming, now for the sixth time, the danger of extinction of life from the earth is increasing.
The Arctic Ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also being affected by the rise in temperature. Its direct effect is visible in the phytoplankton of the Arctic as they are now growing 50 days earlier than their growth time.
29.4 percent of the Arctic region has become green.
Due to the reduced thickness of Arctic ice, the algae no longer have to wait for the snow to melt to get the sunlight, but the thin layer also has enough solar light to reach them. Scientists are constantly researching the impact of such unbalanced marine production on ecosystems in the future, but it will take time to reach a conclusion.
Source PIB, India Water Portal, Wikipedia
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