Nature, February 3 During the two most recent ice ages, the Arctic Ocean was almost completely isolated from the rest of the world’s oceans by a thick ice shelf bordering the polar ice sheets covering the Arctic Ocean and parts of North America and northern Europe. This ice shelf cut off connections to the Atlantic […]

Ocean Science, February 2 Ice sheets and oceans take centuries to fully respond to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations and atmospheric temperatures, and the amount of sea level rise that will take place by 2100 is only the beginning of this response, which will take place over many centuries.  New models that correlate average global […]

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, February 2 Glacier melt and meltwater run-off in the Himalayan region will likely peak in the next few decades (around 2050 under a medium emissions scenario) and then decline as the glaciers shrink. Glaciers in nearly all this region have seen accelerating rates of ice loss for the past several […]

Nature Communications, January 25 Glacier ice algae blooms on the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet form a dark layer of microbial growth that increases the amount of solar radiation the ice absorbs, melting it more rapidly. This phenomenon largely occurs on the southwest portion of the ice sheet, and is responsible for up to […]

Nature Communications, January 21 New analysis of a rare time series of temperature data, collected over 25 years aboard the French Antarctic station’s resupply vessel L’Astrolabe in the portion of the Southern Ocean that separates Australia and Antarctica, shows rapid ocean warming beneath the surface layers of water circling Antarctica, at a rate of 0.3°C warming per […]

Geophysical Research Letters, January 19 Greenland has been losing mass and contributing to sea-level rise since the 1980’s, according to most studies, with most of this loss occurring through calving of icebergs where glaciers running from the ice sheet meet the ocean. Melting of the surface of the ice sheet each summer however is largely offset […]

Using 1951-1980 as baseline, NASA ranked 2020 as the warmest year on record by a narrow margin, while NOAA and the UK Met Office put 2020 in a close second place, essentially tied with 2016. This record or near-record is even more staggering considering the fact that 2020 saw the beginning of a La Niña, […]

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, January 19 The ratio of ice to water in clouds strongly influences how much they reflect the sun’s rays, and whether they are primarily warming or cooling.  Scientists have struggled however to explain the large number of ice particles found in clouds above the coasts of Antarctica during the summer.  New […]

Nature Scientific Reports, January 15 Glacial melting has been identified as one of the main triggers for larger and more frequent landslides in high mountain Asia (the eastern Pamir, western Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and western Kunlun mountains). For the past two decades, glacier extent in this region has decreased overall, while the number of […]

Advancing Earth and Space Science, January 19   The response of Himalayan rivers to climate change is complex due to multiple competing factors: snowfall and snowmelt; rainfall; and glacier melt. This study focused on 5 river basins in the Central Himalayas, and found that snowmelt contributions to river flows will likely decrease by 2100 under both […]

Nature Communications, January 8 Rapid coastal and riverbank erosion due to thawing permafrost today is one of the main sources of nitrogen nutrients in the Arctic Ocean, contributing around 30-50% of the total input (the rest is transferred from neighboring seas and oceans). This land-derived nitrogen off the Arctic continental shelves boosts the productivity of […]

Nature, January 13   Ice ages have long been associated with small periodic changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, but how and why such changes could trigger an ice age has remained an enigma.  Now, one possible explanation has arisen: under a specific orbital setting, Antarctic icebergs travel, and melt further and further […]

Nature Communications, January 4 The oldest and thickest portions of Arctic sea ice can be found in the Nares Strait, located off the northwest coast of Greenland.  Sea ice tends to form in the Laptev Sea north of Russia, then circulates around the Arctic Ocean, with thick multi-year ice discharging each summer through the Nares. […]

Nature, January 4 Warming does not occur evenly across the world. Regional differences in temperature can influence the way the Earth sends its heat back into space and temporarily dampens the planet’s response to increasing emissions, therefore masking a warmer future. This feedback, not included in most models, has the potential to increase long-term estimates for […]

Science Advances, January 1   Warm Atlantic water flowing into dozens of Greenland’s deepest fjords nearly doubles the amount of ice loss by undercutting their outlet glaciers, accounting for about half of their melting and ice loss during the summer months.  The abrupt ∼1.9°C warming of sub-surface ocean waters around Greenland in 1998–2007 triggered widespread […]