What's New Archive
As the Arctic Ocean begins to freeze for the winter...
NOAA and University of Washington scientists gain insight from the air. Using the heavily-instrumented NOAA WP-3D Orion "Hurricane Hunter" research aircraft, scientists have completed the first intensive Arctic overflight experiments to make quantitative measurements of autumn sea ice freezeup in the Chukchi sea, a region of potential oil exploration.
The objective of the flights was met by successfully making measurements of the ocean, and of the atmosphere over open water, first year ice, and multi-year ice, under a variety of weather conditions, during the freezeup. Watch the YouTube video or visit the Arctic Climate Dynamics website to read more about this air/sea study during autumn sea ice freezeup.
The 2013 North Pole web cams were recovered on September 20, marking the end of another successful season monitoring Arctic conditions. The web cams are part of the North Pole Environmental Observatory, tracking snow cover, weather conditions, and formation/refreeze of melt ponds. The above YouTube video above is a time lapse of images for the period from April - September 2013.
For more information please visit the 2013 North Pole web cam website.
PMEL scientists Drs. Christopher Sabine and Gregory Johnson participated in the final government approval meeting for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group I Fifth Assessment Report's Summary for Policymakers (SPM) in Stockholm, Sweden during the week of September 23. Delegates and scientists from 110 countries agreed that warming of the climate system is unequivocal and that it is extremely likely (95% confidence) that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.
The final draft of the full Physical Science Basis report to which PMEL’s Drs. James Overland and Richard Feely also contributed will be out soon.