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ABOUT FACTS NET
Places
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The Arctic
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The Melt Pond
Individual Picture Source: NOAA
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Yes indeed, the Arctic and Antarctic are strange places. As most of us know they are not very habitable places. Today we are going to take a short look at the Arctic or what most of us call the North Pole, you know, that place where Santa makes his headquarters. Recently it has been found that oscillations are coming from the poles. The cause is neither known or understood. It is thought, however, that there are many contributing factors. Some of these may be thermal sources, changes in the stratosphere, and changes in the way ozone is transported in the atmosphere, among other things. Some of the ice in the Arctic melts forming melt ponds and then refreezes. Here is an example taken from the NOAA cam. you can see the dynamic in the animation at the beginning of the story.
The above pictures were taken with a cam at the Arctic It is not easy to travel around in the Arctic. You can use an icebreaker, plane or helicopter, a track vehicle or if you really want to rough it, a dogsled.
Icebreaker
A few of the inhabitants One of the most famous anomalies in the Antarctic is the hole in the ozone layer. Some scientists are stating that more ozone is now flowing into the arctic. Could the hole be disappearing? I guess we will have to wait and see on this one, but one thing seems certain, it is hard to explain the reason why the hole is shrinking.
False Color Picture of Ozone Hole over the Arctic In 1985, a British scientist working in Antarctica discovered a 40 percent loss in the ozone layer over the continent. When Goddard Space Flight Center researchers reviewed their data, they confirmed the ozone loss. Since then, scientists have relied on instrumentation developed by Goddard to keep track of the environmental phenomenon, which in the 1990s prompted a worldwide ban on chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), a chemical used for refrigeration and other industrial uses. In this image, the blue/purple areas show low ozone, while the red areas indicate higher ozone levels. Although ozone is considered a pollutant in the troposphere?the atmospheric layer that contains the air we breathe?in higher altitudes, notably in the stratosphere, ozone is considered vital. Stratospheric ozone blocks harmful ultraviolet radiation produced by the Sun. Scientists worry that the large ozone opening over the poles generally deplete ozone levels around the globe, which could cause a health risk to animals and plants. (Source: NASA) The ice at both poles contains about 2% of all the water in the world. But the water is fresh water which makes it much more valuable. Oceans and the surrounding lands in the Arctic region warmed up as much as two degrees Fahrenheit in the last decade. Scientists know that the warming leads to even more melting, as the two processes become a cycle. Open water absorbs more of the sun's energy than ice does, leading to warmer waters, which results in more melted ice, and thus more open water. Comiso (a satellite) noticed the yearly melting of the ice from spring to fall starts earlier and ends later than it did ten years ago: this "melt season" lengthened by at least a week and a half, on average, per decade since 1980. The seasonal melting expanded as much as 17 days over North America in that period. Source: NASA The following movies require the Windows Media Player. If you don't have a movie player, you can download one here for free.
Video Source: NOAA The Arctic has always been a mysterious place. No one can even say with absolute certainty who was the first to the pole or if any of the claims of getting to the pole are absolutely true. One thing is true about the Arctic and that is the Arctic is a fascinating place. One has just to look and see how many countries have decided to put stations in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. And then there is that old World War II tale of the Nazis escaping to underground bases there. People will always be intrigued with it because of its harshness and loneliness. |
