Environmental Impacts of a Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice Cover

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

Arctic sea ice extent at the end of the summer melt season has declined sharply over the period of satellite observations and is projected to disappear entirely as concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases continue to rise. The extreme seasonal ice extent minima of September 2007 and 2008 serve as exclamation points on the downward trend and have fueled concern that rapid transition to a seasonally ice-free state may be imminent. While the factors forcing this trend have and will continue to be widely studied, less attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of current and future sea ice loss. Ice loss is already promoting increased wave action and coastal erosion and is resulting in strong rises in atmospheric temperature during autumn, not just at and near the surface, but extending through a considerable depth of the atmosphere. Through atmospheric transports, this strong warming, known as Arctic amplification, is starting to extend well beyond areas of ice loss, and will eventually influence Arctic land areas, glaciers, ice caps and the Greenland ice sheet. Though altering horizontal temperature gradients, continued loss of the ice cover is in turn likely to impact on patterns of atmospheric circulation and precipitation not just within the Arctic, but into middle latitudes. This talk addresses these and other emerging environmental impacts of Arctic sea ice loss.

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Authors

  • John Poate

    Brigham Young University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, USA, MV Systems, Inc., USA, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin fuer Materialien und Energie, Abteilung Silizium-Photovoltaik, Germany, Colorado School of Mines, Department of Physics, USA, Georgia Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, Physics Department of Babolsar University, Iran, Physics Department, New Mexico State University, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA, Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1504, USA, Colorado State University, University of Wisconsin, NSF ERC for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology, Colorado State University, BYU-Provo, Michigan Technical University and Pierre Auger Collaboration, University of Colorado, Colorado School of Mines, Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Department of Physics, Cornell University, NASA, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, University of Massachusetss at Amherst, APS President, Harvard University, Society of Physics Students, Duke University, Computer Science, Brigham Young University, Chemistry \& Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, University of Arizona, University of Utah, Kansas State Univ., Bethel University, University of New Mexico, Stanford University, JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder, NIST, JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of Denver, University of Colorado, Boulder, NREL, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287- 1604, USA, DU, ERI, Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (ERI), Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Utah State University, Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences, Sciprint.org, University of Colorado at Boulder, JILA and University of Colorado, Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, University of Heidelberg, Utah Valley University, University of New South Wales, San Francisco State University, Weber State University, Cambridge University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Kansas State University, Columbia University, NY, University of Colorado/JILA, Vice-President for Research and Technology Transfer, Colorado School of Mines