Monthly Archives: March 2012

The Arctic sea ice maximum

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NSIDC scientists announced today that the Arctic sea ice cover has likely reached its maximum extent, marking the beginning of the melt season. (For details, see Arctic Sea Ice News & Analysis). What is the sea ice maximum and why does it matter?

The maximum ice extent marks the beginning of the melt season for Arctic sea ice. Leads, long cracks in the ice, begin to open up and the ice cover starts to melt as sunlight brings warmth to the Arctic. |Credit: Angelika Renner

What is the maximum and when does it happen?
Arctic sea ice melts and regrows in an annual cycle, freezing throughout the winter months and melting in the spring and summer. The ice cover generally reaches its maximum extent sometime in late February or March. After that, ice melts through the summer, hitting a low point in early or mid-September. NSIDC scientist Walt Meier said, “The maximum marks the point when the Arctic shifts from a freezing period into the summer melting period.” Continue reading →

Modeling the Arctic climate

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In February, polar climate researchers gathered at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado to discuss the newest updates to models of the Earth’s climate system. The researchers are working together to create better models of the Arctic and Antarctic climates, which will feed into larger models of the whole Earth that help scientists understand how climate will change in the future. What goes into a climate model, and what can scientists learn from models that they cannot learn from observations?

This image shows several aspects of climate, including sea ice, surface winds, and sea surface temperature. This image came from data simulated from {a href=http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/}NCAR's Community Earth System Model{/a}. ||Credit: ©UCAR. Image courtesy Gary Strand, NCAR|{a href=http://nsidc.org/icelights/files/2012/03/CESM_model_NCAR.jpg}High Resolution Image{/a}

What’s in a model?
Computer climate models are based on scientists’ understanding of Earth’s climate. The models use mathematical relationships to try to quantify the relationships between parts of the climate system. If you tweak one factor in climate, how does the simulated climate system respond? Models that bring many factors together help scientists learn how the climate system works, and let them run simulations on Earth’s climate. They also allow scientists to assess how climate may be affected by present and future changes in greenhouse gases and solar forcing, and how much of a role natural variability plays. Continue reading →