Science in the News 2014

Da Kyung Lee

Mr. Youell

Science 9S

1/15/2015

What's Happening in the North Pole Region?

Since global warming has been a hot issue in the world throughout, such North Pole or South Pole which made by ice are seriously damaged.

Figure 1

(see figure 1) As the temperature in the Arctic is increasing, the surface made by snow and ice is melting quickly. In the past year, 2014, there were lots of articles about the situation on the Arctic. Among them, I have found three articles which come up with different researches. Especially one of the articles say the arctic stayed same without volume changes.

The first article from BBC News that was published on 15th of December, says that the Arctic held up its ice volume in 2014. In october, the spacecraft observed 7,500 cu km of ice cover when the Arctic traditionally starts its freeze-up. But this was only slightly less than 2013 which recorded 8,800 cu km. That is, the two cool summers have allowed the pack to increase and then hold on to a good deal of its volume. Rachel Tilling from the UK’s Nerc Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling  at University College London, said “What we see is the volume going down and down, but then, because of a relatively cool summer, coming back up to form a new high stand,” and she added “So, what may be occurring here is a decline that looks a bit like a sawtooth, where we can lose volume but then recover some of it if there happens to be a shorter melt season one year.”  This is really surprising that the some of volume which has been melting down can come back up to form a new high stand by low temperature.

The next article from NPR that was published on 18th of December, brought completely different research with first one. The researchers from the 2014 Arctic Report Card say that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the average rise on the rest of the planet and the trend isn’t letting up. This is caused by arctic amplification. Jackie Richter-Menge who is a polar scientist collaborating with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, proved how it works, “the surface of snow and ice cool reflecting a lot of the sun’s energy back up into the atmosphere. But warming air temperatures melt snow and ice. And when they melt, they expose the darker region.” This also happens same when sea ice melts. (see figure 2)

Figure 2

The last article is from BBC News that was published a day ago from the second one. It says that the scientists have found that the animals could stay well on the arctic ground than their previous thought and were hastening the release of green house gases from a frozen store of carbon called permafrost.

Figure 3

Although they have different researches, it's true that the arctic is melting day by day and it would be endless. (See figure 3) The polar bear has nowhere to go because the ice which he can live on is melting. Not only this polar bear, lots of polar bears or other animals are dying out from the ice melting, even at this time. The ice or animals that have been already disappeared are very hard to be returned as before. So we should think about the global warming again more seriously.

Work Sites:

- http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30399079

- http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30456869S

- http://www.npr.org/2014/12/18/371438087/arctic-is-warming-twice-as-fast-as-world-average