"The storm definitely seems to have played a role in this year's unusually large retreat of the ice,"
A few weeks ago Piers Corbyn made a point about the "massive cyclone that blew over the central Arctic Ocean" during August and its effect that it would have on the Jet Stream over the UK and Northern Europe, also in a recent blog, Joe Bastardi also made this point. This then may well be a key factor as to why the Actic IcePack is now at a lower then average amount.
I'm glad to see that NASA/NOAA have taken time out on this event and put together the following YouTube and blog.
A powerful storm wreaked havoc on the Arctic sea ice cover in August 2012. This visualization shows the strength and direction of the winds and their impact on the ice: the red vectors represent the fastest winds, while blue vectors stand for slower winds. Credit: NASA/Goddard Science Visualization Studio
Watch how the winds of a large Arctic cyclone broke up the thinning sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean in early August 2012. The storm likely contributed to the ice cap's shrinking to the smallest recorded extent in the past three decades.
The frozen cap of the Arctic Ocean likely reached its annual summertime minimum extent and broke a new record low on Sept. 16, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder has reported. Analysis of satellite data by NASA and the NASA-supported NSIDC showed that the sea ice extent shrunk to 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers), or 293,000 square miles less than the previous lowest extent in the satellite record, set in mid-September, 2007.
"Climate models have predicted a retreat of the Arctic sea ice; but the actual retreat has proven to be much more rapid than the predictions," said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "There continues to be considerable interannual variability in the sea ice cover, but the long-term retreat is quite apparent."
This year, the cyclone formed off the coast of Alaska and moved on Aug. 5 to the center of the Arctic Ocean, where it churned the weakened ice cover for several days. The storm cut off a large section of sea ice north of the Chukchi Sea and pushed it south to warmer waters that made it melt entirely. It also broke vast extensions of ice into smaller pieces more likely to melt.
"The storm definitely seems to have played a role in this year's unusually large retreat of the ice," Parkinson said. "But that exact same storm, had it occurred decades ago when the ice was thicker and more extensive, likely wouldn't have had as prominent an impact, because the ice wasn't as vulnerable then as it is now.".
Sea ice data courtesy of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Wind data courtesy of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
Visualization credit: Scientific Visualization Studio/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Early in the month of August, 2012, storms in the Arctic affected the motion of the sea ice north of Siberia and Alaska. This animation shows the motion of the winds over the Arctic in conjunction with seasonal melting of the Arctic sea ice from August 1 through September 13, 2012, when the NASA scientists determined that the sea ice reached its annual minimum extent. The surface winds, shown my moving arrows, are colored by the velocity. Slower winds are shown in blue, medium in green and the fast winds are shown in red.
Note: Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who calculate the sea ice minimum based on a 5-day trailing average, identified September 16 as the date when the lowest minimum extent occurred. NASA scientists who calculate area on each individual day identified September 13th as the date of the minimum sea ice, although there is little difference in size between the two days.
Of Course, huge cyclone over the Arctic has destroyed significant portions of sea ice cover in last month. But Arctic cyclone itself was an anomaly! The massive release of latent heat due to sea ice decline might favour emergence of cyclones like this one in August 2012.
The melt away of Arctic seaice apparently leads to profound changes in circulation patterns on Northern Hemisphere.
Best regards
Jens Christian
Exposed water areas due to melt away of sea ice cover vaporize water vapor feeding potential cyclones with latent heat!
Best regards
Jens Christian Heuer
Posted by Elim (Twitter) on Sep 20th 2012, 1:30 PM EDT
Wow, Jens politely puts forward an opinion, not presumably in his native language and he gets such rudeness in return. You maybe need to crack down on this sort of thing CO2?
He's right, the increased area of open water results in more of the sun's energy being absorbed. The temperature gradient between warm water and cold ice contributes to the cyclone formation.
Posted by KuhnKat (forum) on Sep 20th 2012, 5:06 PM EDT
Elim, did you check the angle of incidence of the insolation and how little will be absorbed by water with its reflective surface at those angles?? Did you also consider that the water radiates more energy when it is not covered by ice?!?!?!
Posted by Elim (Twitter) on Sep 21st 2012, 3:14 AM EDT
Hi KuhnKat, yes, albedo does vary with angle of incidence but from April there is net heating - and don't forget the continuous solar illumination during the summer months!
Posted by Will Pratt (Twitter) on Sep 21st 2012, 4:24 AM EDT
Jens is in a panic about cooling and Elim is terrified of warming!
There is simply no consoling these petrified AGW Alarmists!
Meanwhile the Earths natural warming and cooling cycles, otherwise known as night and day, winter and summer etc. continue on, blissfully ignorant of a particular form of psychoneurosis, known as Atmosphobia (fear of weather), afflicting a tiny fraction of her genetically predisposed inhabitants.
The Arctic air temperature never gets above 0º C during the summer. This would indicate that all available energy from solar is being consumed by ice melt as latent heat.
The Arctic Ocean is warmed not by the sun but by the Atlantic Gulf Stream via the North Atlantic Drift. There is an average temperature gradient which reduces up to the surface which approaches the maximum Arctic air temps of 0º C.
Posted by Co2sceptic (forum) on Sep 21st 2012, 5:08 AM EDT
Elim
Actually Will is correct, you and the AGW gang are all in a panic over 30 years of data.
The overall picture is that the Earth is doing just fine, it's doing what it has always done, responding to a period of high level solar activity. Now Earth got to respond to a period of low solar activity, but we stupid humans are geting ready for warming instead of cooling, my Atmosphobia (fear of weather) is one of "what the hell are we supposed to do" for the next 30-50 years, MOVE SOUTH!!!!!
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The melt away of Arctic seaice apparently leads to profound changes in circulation patterns on Northern Hemisphere.
Best regards
Jens Christian