Books on the topic 'Antarctic Ocean Climate'

Antarctic climate changes have been reconstructed from ice and sediment cores and numerical models (which also predict future changes). Major ice sheets first appeared 34 million years ago (Ma) and fluctuated throughout the Oligocene, with an overall cooling trend. Ice volume more than doubled at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. Fluctuating Miocene temperatures peaked at 17–14 Ma, followed by dramatic cooling. Cooling continued through the Pliocene and Pleistocene, with another major glacial expansion at 3–2 Ma. Several interacting drivers control Antarctic climate. On timescales of 10,000–100,000 years, insolation varies with orbital cycles, causing periodic climate variations. Opening of Southern Ocean gateways produced a circumpolar current that thermally isolated Antarctica. Declining atmospheric CO2 triggered Cenozoic glaciation. Antarctic glaciations affect global climate by lowering sea level, intensifying atmospheric circulation, and increasing planetary albedo. Ice sheets interact with ocean water, forming water masses that play a key role in global ocean circulation.

Antarctic climate changes have been reconstructed from ice and sediment cores and numerical models (which also predict future changes). Major ice sheets first appeared 34 million years ago (Ma) and fluctuated throughout the Oligocene, with an overall cooling trend. Ice volume more than doubled at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. Fluctuating Miocene temperatures peaked at 17–14 Ma, followed by dramatic cooling. Cooling continued through the Pliocene and Pleistocene, with another major glacial expansion at 3–2 Ma. Several interacting drivers control Antarctic climate. On timescales of 10,000–100,000 years, insolation varies with orbital cycles, causing periodic climate variations. Opening of Southern Ocean gateways produced a circumpolar current that thermally isolated Antarctica. Declining atmospheric CO2 triggered Cenozoic glaciation. Antarctic glaciations affect global climate by lowering sea level, intensifying atmospheric circulation, and increasing planetary albedo. Ice sheets interact with ocean water, forming water masses that play a key role in global ocean circulation.

The Barents Sea is a region of the Arctic Ocean named after one of its first known explorers (1594–1597), Willem Barentsz from the Netherlands, although there are accounts of earlier explorations: the Norwegian seafarer Ottar rounded the northern tip of Europe and explored the Barents and White Seas between 870 and 890 ce, a journey followed by a number of Norsemen; Pomors hunted seals and walruses in the region; and Novgorodian merchants engaged in the fur trade. These seafarers were probably the first to accumulate knowledge about the nature of sea ice in the Barents region; however, scientific expeditions and the exploration of the climate of the region had to wait until the invention and employment of scientific instruments such as the thermometer and barometer. Most of the early exploration involved mapping the land and the sea ice and making geographical observations. There were also many unsuccessful attempts to use the Northeast Passage to reach the Bering Strait. The first scientific expeditions involved F. P. Litke (1821±1824), P. K. Pakhtusov (1834±1835), A. K. Tsivol’ka (1837±1839), and Henrik Mohn (1876–1878), who recorded oceanographic, ice, and meteorological conditions.The scientific study of the Barents region and its climate has been spearheaded by a number of campaigns. There were four generations of the International Polar Year (IPY): 1882–1883, 1932–1933, 1957–1958, and 2007–2008. A British polar campaign was launched in July 1945 with Antarctic operations administered by the Colonial Office, renamed as the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS); it included a scientific bureau by 1950. It was rebranded as the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in 1962 (British Antarctic Survey History leaflet). While BAS had its initial emphasis on the Antarctic, it has also been involved in science projects in the Barents region. The most dedicated mission to the Arctic and the Barents region has been the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), which has commissioned a series of reports on the Arctic climate: the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report, the Snow Water Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) report, and the Adaptive Actions in a Changing Arctic (AACA) report.The climate of the Barents Sea is strongly influenced by the warm waters from the Norwegian current bringing heat from the subtropical North Atlantic. The region is 10°C–15°C warmer than the average temperature on the same latitude, and a large part of the Barents Sea is open water even in winter. It is roughly bounded by the Svalbard archipelago, northern Fennoscandia, the Kanin Peninsula, Kolguyev Island, Novaya Zemlya, and Franz Josef Land, and is a shallow ocean basin which constrains physical processes such as currents and convection. To the west, the Greenland Sea forms a buffer region with some of the strongest temperature gradients on earth between Iceland and Greenland. The combination of a strong temperature gradient and westerlies influences air pressure, wind patterns, and storm tracks. The strong temperature contrast between sea ice and open water in the northern part sets the stage for polar lows, as well as heat and moisture exchange between ocean and atmosphere. Glaciers on the Arctic islands generate icebergs, which may drift in the Barents Sea subject to wind and ocean currents.The land encircling the Barents Sea includes regions with permafrost and tundra. Precipitation comes mainly from synoptic storms and weather fronts; it falls as snow in the winter and rain in the summer. The land area is snow-covered in winter, and rivers in the region drain the rainwater and meltwater into the Barents Sea. Pronounced natural variations in the seasonal weather statistics can be linked to variations in the polar jet stream and Rossby waves, which result in a clustering of storm activity, blocking high-pressure systems. The Barents region is subject to rapid climate change due to a “polar amplification,” and observations from Svalbard suggest that the past warming trend ranks among the strongest recorded on earth. The regional change is reinforced by a number of feedback effects, such as receding sea-ice cover and influx of mild moist air from the south.

Australia has the third largest marine estate in the world, extending from the tropics to Antarctica and including vast areas of the Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans. We have a good reputation for management of our marine estate but there is still much to understand about how our actions affect the oceans, including through climate change, fishing, resource extraction, shipping, and recreation and tourism. Our oceans are tremendous resources, culturally, socially and economically, and are repositories for incredible biodiversity. Oceans provide food and energy and influence weather and climate across the country. Indigenous Australians have had cultural and livelihood relationships with our oceans for thousands of years. Most Australians live within an hour’s drive of the coast and the seaside is a valued recreational destination, as it is for increasing numbers of international tourists. Australia’s oceans affect our every activity and managing them well is vital to our nation. Oceans: Science and Solutions for Australia summarises decades of scientific research by CSIRO and other agencies to describe what we know about our oceans, how research contributes to their use and management, and how new technologies are changing marine research. It provides engaging and accessible reading for all those interested in Australia’s magnificent marine estate.

Climate change is happening all around us, and one of the telltale signs is melting glaciers. We hear about it almost daily, pieces of ice the size of continents breaking off of Antarctica or the polar arctic ice breaking up and disappearing more and more quickly opening up navigational routes once unavailable due to thick winter ice cover. Will melting ice and glaciers so far away change our lives? Meltdown takes us deep into the cryosphere, the Earth’s frozen environment and picks apart why glacier melt caused by climate change will alter (and already is altering) the way we live around the world. From rising seas that will destroy property and flood millions of acres of coastal lands, displacing hundreds of millions of people, to rising global temperatures due to reflectivity changes of the Earth because of decreased white glacier surface area, to colossal water supply changes from glacier runoff reduction, to deadly glacier tsunamis caused by the structural weakening of ice on high mountaintops that will take out entire communities living in glacier runoff basins, to escaping methane gas from thawing frozen permafrost grounds, and changing ocean temperatures that affect jet streams and ocean water currents around the planet, glacier melt is altering our global ecosystems in ways that will drastically change our everyday lives. Meltdown takes us into the little-known periglacial environment, a world of invisible subterranean glaciers in our coldest mountain ranges that will survive the initial impacts of climate change but that are also ultimately at risk due to a warming climate. By examining the dynamics of melting glaciers, Meltdown helps us grasp the impacts of a massive geological era shift occurring right before our eyes.