2011 Antarctic Ozone Minimum

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Paul

Scientists from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed today that ozone depletion over the South Pole in 2011 has reached its annual maximum. Researchers used satellites, ground based monitors, and instrumented balloons to observe the hole, finding it to be among the top 10 worst for the breadth and depth of ozone loss in the 26 year record.

Instrument: Aura - OMI Acquired 12 September 2011


The south pole-centered map above is based on data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite. OMI is a spectrometer, built for the NASA satellite by scientists in Denmark and Finland, that measures the amount of sunlight scattered by Earth’s atmosphere and surface. OMI allows scientists to assess how much ozone is present at various altitudes—particularly the stratosphere—and near the ground.

The image shows the extent, or geographic area, of the ozone hole at its widest on September 12, 2011, when it stretched 10.05 million square miles (26.03 million square kilometers). The lowest concentration of ozone in the southern stratosphere—that is, the deepest “hole”—occurred on October 9, 2011, when levels descended to 95 Dobson units. The hole isn’t literal; no part of the stratosphere is empty of ozone. But scientists use the hole metaphor to describe the area where ozone drops below a historical concentration of 220 Dobson Units.

“The colder than average temperatures in the stratosphere this year caused a larger than average ozone hole,” said Paul Newman, chief scientist for atmospheres at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Even though it was relatively large, the area of this year’s ozone hole was within the range we’d expect, given the levels of manmade ozone-depleting chemicals that continue to persist in the atmosphere.”

Earth’s ozone layer protects life by absorbing ultraviolet light, which damages DNA in plants and animals (including humans) and leads to skin cancer. The problem is serious enough that government agencies in New Zealand and Australia regularly warn their citizens to protect themselves from the Sun when the ozone hole develops each year.

The measurements from OMI continue a legacy of monitoring the ozone layer from space that dates back to 1972 with launch of the Nimbus-4 satellite. You can view the historical progress of the ozone hole by visiting NASA’s Ozone Hole Watch page.

NASA image courtesy Ozone Hole Watch. Caption by Michael Carlowicz and Patrick Lynch.

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Record Arctic ozone hole raises fears of worse to come

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Paul

By David Fogarty for Reuters

A huge hole that appeared in the Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, triggering worries the event could occur again and be even worse, scientists said in a report on Monday.

The ozone layer high in the stratosphere acts like a giant shield against the Sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can cause skin cancers and cataracts.

Since the 1980s, scientists have recorded an ozone hole every summer above the Antarctic at the bottom of the globe.

Some years, the holes have been so large they covered the entire continent and stretched to parts of South America, leading to worries about a surge in skin cancers.

During extreme events, up to 70 percent of the ozone layer can be destroyed, before it recovers months later.

A matching hole above the Arctic was always much smaller, until March this year, when a combination of powerful wind patterns and intense cold high in the atmosphere created the right conditions for ozone-eating chlorine chemicals to damage the layer.

The findings, reported on Monday in the journal Nature, show the hole opened over northern Russia, parts of Greenland, and Norway, meaning people in these areas were likely to have been exposed to high levels of UV radiation.

“The chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was, for the first time in the observational record, comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole,” say the scientists, led by Gloria Manney of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Man-made Chemicals

Scientists say man-made chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons destroy ozone in the stratosphere. Sunlight breaks up the complex chemicals into simpler forms that react with ozone. While some of the chemicals are covered by a U.N. treaty that aims to stop their use, it will be decades before they are fully phased out of production.

Normally, atmospheric conditions high above the Arctic do not trigger a large-scale plunge in ozone levels. But in the 2010/11 winter, a high-altitude wind pattern called the polar vortex was unusually strong, leading to very cold conditions in the stratosphere that also lasted for several months.

This created the right conditions for the ozone-destroying forms of chlorine to slash ozone levels over a long period.

“Chemical ozone destruction in the 2011 Arctic polar vortex attained, for the first time, a level clearly identifiable as an Arctic ozone hole,” said the authors.

The researchers pointed to the risk if the Arctic hole becomes an annual event and spreads.

“More acute Arctic ozone destruction could exacerbate biological risks from increased ultraviolet radiation exposure, especially if the vortex shifted over densely populated mid-latitudes, as it did in April 2011,” they wrote.

Editing by Daniel Magnowski

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Bangkok - Ant(arctic)a show

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Paul

You are cordially invited to

ANT(ARCTIC)A

By Stephen Eastaugh and Carolina Furque

AA12 (17.5x17.cm) digital image on EPSOM cool press, non-acid paper. Edition of #2

Reception is on the 4th October, 2011 and will be presided over by Her Excellency Ana Maria Ramirez, Ambassador of Argentina and His Excellency James Wise, Australian Ambassador.

Exhibition is on display until the 5th of November. 2011.

La Lanta Fine Art
245/14 Sukhumvit Soi 31 Klongtan-Nue Wattana
Bangkok 10110

Visit the exhibition online here http://www.lalanta.com

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Underwater Antarctic volcanoes discovered in the Southern Ocean

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Paul

British Antarctic Survey

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered previously unknown volcanoes in the ocean waters around the remote South Sandwich Islands. Using ship-borne sea-floor mapping technology during research cruises onboard the RRS James Clark Ross, the scientists found 12 volcanoes beneath the sea surface — some up to 3km high. They found 5km diameter craters left by collapsing volcanoes and 7 active volcanoes visible above the sea as a chain of islands.

The research is important also for understanding what happens when volcanoes erupt or collapse underwater and their potential for creating serious hazards such as tsunamis. Also this sub-sea landscape, with its waters warmed by volcanic activity creates a rich habitat for many species of wildlife and adds valuable new insight about life on earth.

Sea-floor mapping technology reveals volcanoes beneath the sea surface

Speaking at the International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences in Edinburgh Dr Phil Leat from British Antarctic Survey said,
“There is so much that we don’t understand about volcanic activity beneath the sea — it’s likely that volcanoes are erupting or collapsing all the time. The technologies that scientists can now use from ships not only give us an opportunity to piece together the story of the evolution of our earth, but they also help shed new light on the development of natural events that pose hazards for people living in more populated regions on the planet.”


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Melting of the Arctic ‘will accelerate climate change within 20 years’

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Paul

Meanwhile up in the Arctic. Steve Connor, Science Editor for The Independent

An irreversible climate “tipping point” could occur within the next 20 years as a result of the release of huge quantities of organic carbon locked away as frozen plant matter in the vast permafrost region of the Arctic, scientists have found.

Billions of tons of frozen leaves and roots that have lain undisturbed for thousands of years in the permanently frozen ground of the northern hemisphere are thawing out, with potentially catastrophic implications for climate change, the researchers said.

Warming threat to the frozen ground of the arctic | Graphic: Rob Brooks for The Independent

A study into the speed at which the permafrost is melting suggests that the tipping point will occur between 2020 and 2030 and will mark the point at which the Arctic turns from being a net “sink” for carbon dioxide into an overall source that will accelerate global warming, they said.

The study is the first global investigation of what will happen in a warmer world to the huge amounts of frozen plant matter that has remained undegraded in the soil since it was incorporated into the permafrost about 30,000 years ago.

It also found that by 2200 about two-thirds of the Earth’s permafrost will have melted, releasing an estimated 190 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the air – about half of all the fossil fuel emissions of greenhouse gases since the start of the industrial revolution.

“Our results indicate that, as the Arctic warms up, this frozen carbon will thaw out, allowing microbial decay to resume and releasing carbon into the atmosphere,” said Kevin Schaefer of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado.

“Our research shows that the release of carbon from permafrost will result in an irreversible climate tipping point in only 20 years… Once the frozen carbon thaws out and decays, there is no way to put it back into the permafrost,” Dr Schaefer said.

The Arctic has experienced some of the greatest climatic changes in the world over recent decades. Summer sea ice has melted back to record minimums, average temperatures have increased dramatically, and scientists have documented significant melting of the underground permafrost, from Alaska to eastern Siberia.

The rising temperatures have lengthened the growing season of the Arctic summer, which has increased plant growth and the consequent uptake of carbon dioxide. However, by around 2025 this will go into reverse and the thawing permafrost will release more carbon than is being taken up by the tundra growing above it, Dr Schaefer said.

“There are two important messages from this study. The first is that the melting permafrost can release huge amounts of carbon and, secondly, the process is irreversible on a human timescale and will affect our targets for reducing fossil fuel emissions,” he said.

“All our emission reduction strategies are designed to hit a target atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration corresponding to a target climate. If we do not account for carbon released from thawing permafrost, we will overshoot this target concentration and end up with a warmer climate than we want,” Dr Schaefer said.

Permanently frozen ground covers about a quarter of the northern hemisphere and starts about a metre below the surface, extending up to 500 metres. The top three metres contain most of the frozen plant matter, primarily grass roots caught up in the last ice age.

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Remote Antarctic island is ‘richer in biodiversity than the Galapagos’

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Paul

Once believed to be an “inhospitable lump of rock,” South Georgia Island is now thought to harbor more biodiversity than the wildlife-rich Galapagos writes Bryan Nelson for Mother Nature Network

Antarctica’s remote South Georgia Island boasts 90 percent of the world’s fur seals, half of the world’s elephant seals, is navigated by vast populations of blue whales, sperm whales and killer whales, and has beaches that can be packed shoulder-to-shoulder with nesting penguins. In total, it contains nearly 1,500 recorded species, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth.

It’s almost impossible to believe that until recently this biological treasure was believed to be nothing more than an “inhospitable lump of rock.”

In fact, researchers now believe that South Georgia Island contains more species than anywhere else in the Southern Ocean, and may even be the most biologically diverse remote island in the world- even more diverse than the storied Galapagos Islands, according to The Independent.

“It shows you don’t have to be a tropical island or in a hot part of the world to support a lot of marine life. These lumps of rock may look inhospitable and cold but once you are under the surface of the water they can support a diverse ecosystem,” said Oliver Hogg, one member of a recent research team sent to survey the island’s wildlife.

Though South Georgia has long been recognized as a hot spot for marine mammals and seabirds, researchers have only recently delved deeper into the waters surrounding the island, which is where most of its vast biological wealth resides. A recent analysis of records produced over the last 130 years of exploration has revealed at least 1,445 different species in South Georgia’s waters. And more recent expeditions have pulled up so many examples of new sealife that they have yet to be properly counted and identified.

The types of sealife around the island varies immensely. There are unique fish, like the South Georgia icefish, sea spiders, brittle stars, scores of crustaceans and sea urchins, and even free-swimming worms. The island is also home to over 81 species of sponge, three percent of which are endemic to the island.

One reason that South Georgia is so rich in biodiversity is its remoteness. Like with the Galapagos Islands, isolation can foster unique evolutionary wellsprings unfettered by forces found on larger continents. The island has also been isolated for a long time, for at least the last 45 million years.

“One of the reasons it’s so rich is, we suspect, that it’s a really old island. It separated from the continental land mass of South America and Antarctica about 45 million years ago so it’s had a lot of time to evolve new species and develop a really diverse ecosystem,” said Hogg.

South Georgia also benefits from being positioned among currents which transport nutrients and species from both cold and warm waters. It essentially sits at an oceanic crossroads, bringing together unique creatures which would otherwise live a world apart.

Though the recent rediscovery of this vast biological treasure is exciting news, researchers also warn that it may already be threatened. Rising sea temperatures wrought by global warming are particularly pronounced at the world’s extremes- in the Arctic and the Antarctic- and many of South Georgia’s species are sensitive to shifts in water temperature. Between 1925 and 2006, sea temperatures in the region rose on average by 0.9C in January and 2.3C in August. That’s a change trending far faster than most species can likely adjust for.

Researchers thus hope that South Georgia’s new status as the ‘Galapagos of the Southern Ocean’ will help foster awareness about the problem of global warming, and possibly even lead to new marine protections in the region.

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NASA Study Shows Melting Ice Caps are Largest Contributor to Higher Seas

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Paul

by David A Gabel for ENN

The news just seems to be getting worse and worse coming out of the Arctic and Antarctic. The melting of ice is not appearing to let up, and is in fact, getting faster. A new NASA-funded satellite study shows that the two biggest ice sheets on Earth - Greenland and Antarctica - are losing mass at an accelerating rate. This is the longest study ever conducted to analyze changing ice conditions at the poles, spanning nearly 20 years. Researchers concluded that the melting of ice caps has overtaken the melting of mountain glaciers to be the most dominant source of global sea level rise, much sooner than previous forecast models predicted.

Over the length of the study, the ice caps have lost an average combined mass of 475 gigatons per year (1 gigaton = 1 billion metric tons). Over the course of the study, that number has risen by 36.3 gigatons for each consecutive year on average. In comparison, the loss of mountain glaciers was estimated at 402 gigatons per year on average. However, the rate of acceleration for mountain glacier loss is three times smaller than that of the ice caps.

“That ice sheets will dominate future sea level rise is not surprising — they hold a lot more ice mass than mountain glaciers,” said lead author Eric Rignot, jointly of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Irvine. “What is surprising is this increased contribution by the ice sheets is already happening. If present trends continue, sea level is likely to be significantly higher than levels projected by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007. Our study helps reduce uncertainties in near-term projections of sea level rise.”

Over the next four decades, the researchers conclude that if ice sheets keep melting at their current rate, sea levels could rise by 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) by 2050. However, they caution that there are number of uncertainties remaining in accurately predicting future ice loss acceleration.

This study is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Link to published article: here

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First Recorded Loss of an Emperor Penguin Colony

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Paul

British Antarctic Survey

Scientists at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have recently described the loss of a small colony of emperor penguins on an island off the West Antarctic Peninsula. The loss is attributed to reduced sea ice, which provides an important nesting substrate for the penguins as well as an important foraging habitat. Reporting in the February edition of the scientific journal PLoS ONE researchers from BAS and Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) say that this is the first time the disappearance of an emperor penguin colony has been documented.

The small colony of birds on Emperor Island was found in 1948 when scientists observed 150 pairs gathering there to breed. However, since 1970 the numbers have been declining steadily and in 2009 a high resolution survey from the air revealed no remaining trace of the colony. The decline and loss of the colony relates closely to a rise in local air temperature and seasonal changes in sea ice duration, associated with climate change.

Emperor penguins on ice | Image courtesy BAS

Lead author Dr Phil Trathan from British Antarctic Survey says,

“It is not clear whether the colony died out or relocated. Emperor penguins are thought to return each year to the sites where they hatched, but the colonies must sometimes relocate because of changes in the sea ice. It is clear that emperor penguins are vulnerable to changes in sea ice and the one site in Antarctica where we have seen really big changes in ice is the West Antarctic Peninsula. For much of the 20th century, this region has warmed at an unprecedented rate, particularly in recent decades. Continued climate change is likely to impact on future breeding success.”

The paper also explores alternative hypotheses of perhaps why the colony may have disappeared, including possible effects from competition with fisheries, impacts from tourism, disease and unusual weather conditions. The authors suggest that at least the first two of these suggestions can be discounted, and that there are no data to support the remaining two.

The loss of this colony provides important evidence about emperor penguin population trajectories; however, to reduce uncertainty about the risks to emperors, similar studies are needed elsewhere in the Antarctic.

Notes for editors

First Recorded Loss of an Emperor Penguin Colony in the Recent Period of Antarctic Regional Warming: Implications for Other Colonies – full paper

For images to accompany the story or to request an interview with one of the researchers, please contact:

Heather Martin, Tel: +44 (0)1223 221226; mobile: 07740 822229; email: [email protected]
Athena Dinar, Tel: +44 (0)1223 221414; mobile: 07736 921693; email: [email protected]

British Antarctic Survey (BAS), a component of the Natural Environment Research Council, delivers world-leading interdisciplinary research in the Polar Regions. Its skilled science and support staff based in Cambridge, Antarctica and the Arctic, work together to deliver research that underpins a productive economy and contributes to a sustainable world. Its numerous national and international collaborations, leadership role in Antarctic affairs and excellent infrastructure help ensure that the UK maintains a world leading position. BAS has over 450 staff and operates five research stations, two Royal Research Ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica. Stunning broadcast-quality footage and stills of Antarctica are available from the BAS Press Office as above.

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Record Low Arctic Sea Ice Extent for January

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Paul

Meantime, on the top of the planet in the Arctic… from Earth Observatory

During the Northern Hemisphere winter of 2010–2011, unusually cold temperatures and heavy snowstorms plagued North America and Europe, while conditions were unusually warm farther north. Now the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has reported that Arctic sea ice was at its lowest extent ever recorded for January (since satellite records began).

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using AMSR-E data and sea ice extent contours courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Caption by Michon Scott.

This image shows the average Arctic sea ice concentration for January 2011, based on observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. Blue indicates open water; white indicates high sea ice concentrations; and turquoise indicates loosely packed sea ice. The yellow line shows the average sea ice extent for January from 1979 through 2000.

NSIDC reported that ice extent was unusually low in Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait, and Davis Strait in the early winter. Normally frozen over by late November, these areas did not completely freeze until mid-January 2011. The Labrador Sea was also unusually ice-free.

NSIDC offered two possible explanations. One reason is the Arctic Oscillation (AO), a seesaw pattern of differences in atmospheric pressure. In “positive” mode, the AO includes high pressure over the mid-latitudes and low pressure over the Arctic, setting up wind patterns that trap cold air in the far North. In “negative” mode, air pressure isn’t quite as low over the Arctic and isn’t quite as high over the mid-latitudes. This enables cold air to creep south and relatively warm air to move north.

The AO was in negative mode in December 2010 and January 2011, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At mid-latitudes, the negative mode resulted in extremely cold temperatures and heavy snow in Europe and North America. At the same time, warm air over the Arctic impeded sea ice growth. NOAA has forecast that the AO should return to positive mode in February 2011, but for how long was unclear.

Another factor in the low Arctic sea ice extent, NSIDC explained, could be that the areas of open ocean were still releasing heat to the atmosphere. Due to its bright appearance, sea ice reflects most of the Sun’s light and heat back into space. Dark ocean water, by contrast, absorbs most of that energy and reinforces the melting process.

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Antarctic Drilling Plan Raises Concerns

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Paul

Russian scientists used kerosene to keep a drilled hole open in the remote Antarctic Lake Vostok writes Eric Niiler for Discovery News.

The big mystery of Lake Vostok and whether it holds ancient microbial life will have to wait for another Antarctic winter to pass. A team of Russian researchers left their remote drilling site this week with less than 50 feet to go to break into the surface of a vast underground lake that has remain untouched for the past 15 million years.

In order to catch the last plane home, the Russians left behind a 12,300-foot borehole filled with kerosene to prevent it from freezing — as well as questions for the international scientific community about whether the project will contaminate any new life forms that may be lurking below.

“I can understand the Russians don’t want to start over — it’s a four kilometer ice sheet — but this is a unique place,” said Claire Christian of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based group focused on environmental issues on the Antarctic continent. “You have to use the most precaution that you can, and our main concern remains contamination.”

The Russian plan to penetrate the lake has been debated since it was discovered in 1993, and the drillers have had several failed boreholes in the past decade. In 2007, a drillbit broke off and crashed to the bottom of the hole. Russian engineers pumped in anti-freeze into the hole in order to retrieve it, but they eventually abandoned the device.

The presence of anti-freeze and other chemicals in such an untouched environment worries both advocates and scientists.

A study by U.S. National Research Council predicted Lake Vostok would contain unique life forms, sediments could give clues to long term climate of the region and isotopes would help geologist figure out how these unusual sub-glacial lakes are formed.

Despite the risks, the Russian plan to use fuel and other drilling fluids to keep the hole open was approved by members of the Antarctic treaty, which governs scientific projects on the frozen continent. The project was opposed by some environmental groups and scientists who argued that hot-water drilling would do less environmental damage.

British researchers are using hot-water drills to pierce the nearby Lake Ellsworth and are close to reaching their goal. A joint American-Swedish-German team used hot-water drilling techniques to build a massive neutrino detector at the South Pole more than a mile and a half below the surface.

But Russians complained hot-water drilling required more power than they could generate at their remote camp, also known as Vostok.

Many scientists who study Antarctica say the project has become a point of national pride for a nation that has fallen on hard times. And of course, there’s the thrill of being first.

“It’s like exploring an alien planet where no one has been before. We don’t know what we’ll find,” Valery Lukin of Russia’s Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St Petersburg, which oversees the expedition, told Reuters this week.

Lukin has said that once the lake is breached, water pressure will shoot up the borehole and freeze the drilling fluids them solid — keeping them out of the lake itself. But Christian said the Russians need to slow down.

Lake Vostok “isn’t going anywhere and we would also like to see what happens at Ellsworth. It’s a much smaller lake it might be good idea to see how it works first. You are going to be opening the lake up to the outside we just not sure what will happen.”

The Russian team plans to return to the drilling site in December.

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