Paul Beckwith on ice speed and drift - update 1



Above image shows Arctic sea ice extent (total area of at least 15% ice concentration) for the last 7 years, compared to the average 1972-2011, as calculated by the Polar View team at the University of Bremen, Germany.

View Paul Beckwith's August 30 presentation on sea ice speed and drift by clicking on the following link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByLujhsHsxP7VTlsczIyalpjNDQ/edit


Or, view the presentation in the window below (it may take some time for the file to fully load).


Two earthquakes off the coast of Jan Mayen Island

Two earthquakes struck the waters off the coast of Jan Mayen Island on August 30, 2012. One had  a magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter Scale and occurred at 13:43 pm (UTC), and was followed eight minutes later by a second one with a magnitude of 5.2 on the Richter Scale that took place on 13:51 pm (UTC).

The location of the earthquakes is indicated by the blue square on the top left of the USGS map below.


The Google map below shows that the location is on fault line extending north into the Arctic Ocean.



The map below shows the two earthquakes at the top in orange. The map shows all earthquakes with a magnitude 5.0 or higher that happened worldwide from August 1 to 30, 2012.


The largest earthquake in August 2012 was a magnitude 7.7 quake on August 14 in the Sea of Okhotsk, close to Sakhalin, Russia's largest island.  With a depth of 626 km (389 miles), it was a "deep-focus" earthquake. Such quakes can be felt at great distance from their epicenters.

As the above map shows, this 7.7 M earthquake and the two recent ones off the coast of Jan Mayen Island occurred on the same fault line that goes over the Arctic. The danger is that further earthquakes on this fault line could destabilize methane hydrates in the Arctic, triggering release of huge amounts of methane.

The map below, from this page, shows fault lines and elevation in meters.



In 2011, a number of posts were added on this topic at knol, which has meanwhile discontinued. These posts have been preserved at the following pages:
Methane linked to Seismic Activity in the Arctic
Runaway warming
Thermal expansion of the Earth's crust necessitates geoengineering


Arctic sea ice area already shrank by over 81 percent this year


Arctic sea ice area already shrank by over 81% this year.

Arctic sea ice area was 13.70851 million square km on the 88th day of 2012, as illustrated on the image below by The Cryosphere Today.  The image further below shows that only 2.59449 million square km was left of Arctic sea ice area on the 238th day of 2012. In other words, less than 19% is left of the sea ice area there was earlier this year.

And there's still quite a few days to go in the melting season.




Arctic Sea Ice Collapse Food Emergency

Arctic Sea Ice Collapse Food Emergency
a video by Peter Carter of
ArcticClimateEmergency.com




Diagram of Doom



Above diagram was part of a poster displayed at the 2011 AGU meeting in San Francisco by the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG). It was accompanied by the following text: In the Arctic, three problems are compounding one another: emissions causing global warming, sea ice loss causing accelerated warming, and methane releases further accelerating Arctic warming, with the danger of triggering runaway global warming.

The diagram pictures three kinds of warming and their main causes:
  1. Emissions by people causing global warming, with temperatures rising around the globe, including the Arctic.
  2. Soot, dust and volatile organic compounds settling down on snow and ice, causing albedo change. More heat is absorbed, rather than reflected as was previously the case. This causes accelerated warming in the Arctic.
  3. Accelerated warming in the Arctic threatening to weaken methane stores in the Arctic with the danger that methane releases will trigger runaway global warming.

The diagram also pictures two feedback effects that make things even worse:
  • Albedo feedback: Accelerated warming in the Arctic speeds up sea ice loss, further accelerating albedo change.
  • Methane feedback: Methane releases in the Arctic further add to the acceleration of warming in the Arctic, further contributing to weaken Arctic methane stores and increasing the danger that methane releases will trigger runaway global warming.

Albedo change in the Arctic comprises a number of elements, as depicted in the image below, from the 2004 report Impacts of a Warming Arctic - Arctic Climate Impact Assessmentby the International Arctic Science Committee.  


As described in various posts at this blog over time, there are further points that should be taken into account. Regarding sea ice loss, it's clear that where sea ice retreats, more open water appears, with the result that less sunlight is reflected back into space. Accelerated warming will also affect the integrity of the remaining sea ice, as well as of the snow and ice cover on land, including glaciers. This further adds to the albedo effect, causing less sunlight to be reflected back into space. Similarly, further feedbacks could be added or described in more detail.

Accordingly, ten feedbacks can be identified, and described as follows:
  1. Albedo feedback: Accelerated warming in the Arctic speeds up the decline of ice and snow cover, further accelerating albedo change. 
  2. Methane feedback: Methane releases in the Arctic further add to the acceleration of warming in the Arctic, further contributing to weaken Arctic methane stores and increasing the danger that methane releases will trigger runaway global warming. 
  3. Currents feedback: Sea ice loss can cause vertical sea currents to weaken, reducing the cooling effect they had on the seabed. This can thus further cause sediments to warm up that can contain huge amounts of methane in the form of free gas and hydrates. 
  4. Storms feedback: Increased frequency and intensity of storms can cause substantially more vertical mixing of the sea water column, causing more warming of the seabed, thus further contributing to the warming of sediments, as above. 
  5. Storms feedback: Accelerated warming in the Arctic can result in more storms, causing mixing of cold Arctic air with warmer air from outside the Arctic. The net result is a warmer Arctic. 
  6. Storms feedback: More open waters can result in more storms that can push the ice across the Arctic Ocean, and possibly all the way out of the Arctic Ocean. 
  7. Storms feedback: Storms also cause more waves that break up the sea ice. Smaller pieces of ice melt quicker than large pieces. A large flat and solid layer of ice is also less susceptible to wind than many lighter and smaller pieces of ice that will stand out above the water and capture the wind like the sails of yachts. 
  8. Storms feedback: Storms cause waters to become more wavy. Calm waters can reflect much sunlight back into space, acting as a mirror, especially when the sun shines under a low angle. Wavy waters, on the other hand, absorb more sunlight. 
  9. Fires feedback: More extreme weather comes with heatwaves and storms. Thus, this is in part another storms feedback. The combination of storms and fires can be deadly. Heatwaves can spark fires that, when fueled up by storms, turn into firestorms affecting huge areas and causing huge amounts of emissions. Storms can whip up particles that when deposited on ice, snow or the bare soil, can cause more sunlight to be absorbed. 
  10. Open doors feedback: Accelerated warming in the Arctic causes the polar vortex and jet stream to weaken, causing more extreme weather and making it easier for warm air to enter the Arctic.

These ten feedback are depicted in the diagram below. 


Opening further Doorways to Doom


Until now, the Arctic has been protected from overheating in a number of ways.
 


Negative Arctic Oscillation conditions are associated with
higher pressure in the Arctic and a weakened polar vortex
(yellow arrows). A weakened jet stream (black arrows) is  
characterized by larger-amplitude meanders in its trajectory
and a reduction in the wave speed of those meanders.
Snow and ice that grows in winter will act as a buffer when temperatures rise in summer. A bright snow and ice cover will reflect most sunlight back into space. Furthermore, a lot of the sunlight that isn't reflected will be consumed by the process of turning snow and ice into water, which occurs while temperatures remain at the melting point of 0°C (32°F, 273.15 K).

The Arctic is further protected from overheating by the polar vortex and jet stream, which act to keep cold air in the Arctic and keep warm air out. However, accelerated warming in the Arctic is now causing the polar vortex and jet stream to weaken. 


Accelerated warming in the Arctic alters the polar jet stream by slowing its speed and by increasing its waviness. Larger swings in the jet stream allow frigid air from the Arctic to plunge farther south, as well as warm, moist tropical air to penetrate northward, explains Jennifer Francis, research
professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal
Sciences at Rutgers University.

The polar jet stream can travel at speeds greater than 100 mph. Here, the fastest winds are colored red; 
slower winds are blue. View animated version here. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

What is described above can be regarded as an "open doors feedback". It's like leaving the doors open when it's cold inside and hot outside.

Accelerated warming in the Arctic comes with many such feedbacks, e.g. higher temperatures and more open water in the Arctic can also be expected to increase the danger that storms will batter the sea ice with greater ferocity. This is depicted in the image below.




In many ways, this is opening the doorways to doom. The biggest danger is that temperature rises will cause Arctic methane stores to weaken, resulting in huge amounts of methane to be released, triggering warming that could escalate into runaway global warming.  

The image below shows the sea surface temperature anomaly for August 27, 2012, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).



Rising temperatures in the Arctic threaten to trigger methane releases, as shown on the poster below.




The poster is also part of the presentation below:




 

Paul Beckwith on ice speed and drift



Above image shows Arctic sea ice extent (total area of at least 15% ice concentration) for the last 7 years, compared to the average 1972-2011, as calculated by the Polar View team at the University of Bremen, Germany.

View Paul Beckwith's August 27 presentation on sea ice speed and drift by clicking on the following link:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByLujhsHsxP7OXliVnN4T3lnekE/edit


Or, view the presentation in the window below (it may take some time for the file to fully load).


NSIDC: Arctic sea ice breaks lowest extent on record

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reports that Arctic sea ice has broken the previously lowest extent on record, which was in 2007.

Arctic sea ice extent fell to 4.10 million square kilometers (1.58 million square miles) on August 26, 2012. This was 70,000 square kilometers (27,000 square miles) below the September 18, 2007 daily extent of 4.17 million square kilometers (1.61 million square miles).

NSIDC scientist Walt Meier said, "By itself it's just a number, and occasionally records are going to get set. But in the context of what's happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it's an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing."

According to NSIDC Director Mark Serreze, "The previous record, set in 2007, occurred because of near perfect summer weather for melting ice. Apart from one big storm in early August, weather patterns this year were unremarkable. The ice is so thin and weak now, it doesn't matter how the winds blow."

"The Arctic used to be dominated by multiyear ice, or ice that stayed around for several years," Meier said. "Now it's becoming more of a seasonal ice cover and large areas are now prone to melting out in summer."

With two to three weeks left in the melt season, NSIDC scientists anticipate that the minimum ice extent could fall even lower.

References
NSIDC: Arctic sea ice breaks lowest extent
NSIDC Media Advisory: Arctic sea ice breaks lowest extent on record
NSIDC: Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis


Future of Arctic Ice: The Three Perspectives

By Veli Albert Kallio
Veli Albert Kallio in front of Peter Wadhams and John Nissen at
APPCCG event, March 13, 2012, House of Commons, London


I use three type sources to assess climate:
  1. the peer-reviewed literature and news reports; 
  2. the whistle-blower organisations (Wikileaks, Cialeaks that release data files from the US Army, Navy, Air Force, CIA, the US State Department, or intercepted corporate telephone or Internet communications; and 
  3. indigenous people’s organisations and their ethnoclimatology people.

June 26, 2012: the Cialeaks released data files from the US stating that the North Pole will be ice free in 2013. These appear to be submarine upward sonar readings of ice from the US Navy. These contrast strongly what NSIDC is saying about the sea ice surviving much longer. I do not know the reason why US Navy and NSIDC advice differently on this point (an exponential trend projection based on PIOMAS data gives zero-ice 2015).

As per the question, where all heat goes after the sea ice has melted, I stick to the advice given in the United Nations General Assembly motion 101292: the Polar Ice responds extremely fast: first the sea ice melts and disintegrates, then followed by intense methane surges and equally rapid losses of the Arctic terrestrial ice cover in Greenland which never melts, but collapses instead.

After the sea ice loss, the permafrost and Greenland Ice Sheet take up a large portion of that energy that was previously used to melt the sea ice during the short summers. As a result, the ocean warms up and rains much more water than now with the flash-floods becoming very frequent in Greenland. As a result many times more water appears on top of Greenland’s Ice Sheet.

Greenland Ice Sheet rapidly metamorphoses from a (cold, dry, stable) moraine-forming ice sheet into a (warm, wet, dynamic) aggregate-forming ice sheet as the water amount within ice sheet and at its base increase. The bottom part of the ice sheet turns increasingly into water-logged, “mushy” ice that loses its internal strength, while pot holes on bedrocks become filled by water.

By 2020's 1/3 of Greenland Ice Sheet's base (between ice and bedrock) is dotted with water ponds at which point the rapid erosion processes (cavitation, plucking and kolking) pulverise the ice so aggressively that an "ice sheet thrust" develops against coastal perimeter at Melville Bay area. Even the dry parts of ice sheet then no longer can hold the ice dome in place and Heindrich Ice Berg Calving Event (H-1) occurs.

After the Heindrich Minus One (H-1) event the North Atlantic Ocean between America and Europe fills by broken ice that triggers a near-instantaneous severe climate cooling: the Last Dryas. Europe will see many years lasting freeze with Dryas Octopetala rapidly taking hold across continent's then barren soils. The ice volume is 10 times less in Greenland than in a similar event when the Hudson Bay Ice Dome reminders collapsed.

This ice evolution history of the First Nations of Americas as expressed on the UN General Assembly motion 101292 and the Plantagon Declarations, were used on the global-warming themed film “A Day After Tomorrow” and also “2012” by director Roland Emmerlich. Unfortunately, the films assigned incorrect physics and caused great annoyance among the Native American Indian communities due to many other inaccuracies in details therein:

“2012” films ‘mystery radiation of sun’ was never caused by neutrinos, but methane: the Bøllinger Years. The ‘core melting’ was due to the displacement of asthenosphere’s fluids as the heavy Foxe-Laurentide Ice Dome destabilised forcing the liquid minerals in asthenosphere to move out of way, the pressures causing huge eruptions and lava floods (asthenosphere is like a “wet sponge”, a composite of solid and liquid minerals).

“A Day After Tomorrow’s freeze failed the Boyle’s Law: ultra-cold stratosphere cannot fall, and cause instantaneous sea level jump that was followed by the Younger Dryas freeze-up, but ice can.

The First Nations of Americas have raised the alarm very clearly continuously for the last 20 years since the first Rio de Janeiro summit in 1992 that the West is living in delusions (including its scientists). Just like the perimeter between the south tip of the Baffin Island and the north tip of Newfoundland once failed, ending the Ice Ages, the rapid melt water accumulation same way destroys now Greenland’s perimeter barrier at Melville Bay. Wet solidus damage causing lava floods and inlet fjord leaks can suddenly speed it up even more unpredictably.

Here is Professor Oren Lyon Jr.’s (Native American Tradition-Keeper and Historian of the Six Nations who worked at the University of Buffalo), the Internet summary of the Plantagon Declarations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OjjPETcz6A

There is no point just to observe and repeat only points that appear in the professional literature. I want other communities’ perspectives and wisdom to be also realised and acknowledged:

+ either: the ancient experiences of the ancient people,

+ or: for the huge risks that people take to uncover often illegal practises by the corporations who are often acting in tacit co-operation with government officials, scientists or industrialists who are hostile to admit publically the role of greenhouse gases that violate their pet paradigm that the economic growth can be based on infinite growth from fossil-fuelled supply of goods and services.

Veli Albert Kallio, FRGS
International Guru Nanak Peace Prize Nominee for 2008;
sea level rise risk for global security & economic stability.

How much sea ice is lost daily?

How much sea ice is lost in the Arctic daily? What are your estimates (in square km and cubic km)? 



Paul Beckwith
Paul Beckwith, B.Eng, M.Sc. (Physics),
Ph. D. student (Climatology) and
Part-time Professor, University of Ottawa

Losses of 100,000 square kilometer per day loss of sea ice area are being reported by various sources. Images of ice speed and drift, in conjunction with ice thickness, would support this.

This rate of loss is as large as that lost during the August 3rd to 10th cyclone (700,000 to 800,000 square kilometers lost for the duration of the cyclone).

My prediction that we'll lose virtually all sea ice by September 30th, 2012, still seems very reasonable.




Sam Carana

I too estimate there have been losses of 100,000 square kilometer per day for over two months now.

The top image at my recent post on ice extent shows that extent has roughly halved in two months time, from over 12 million square km at the start of June to roughly 6 million square km at the start of August. That's a loss of about 6 million square km in two months time, or about 100,000 square km per day.

To date, this loss rate appears to have continued in August and shows no signs of decreasing yet.

Cyclone Warning

By Harold Hensel, edited by Sam Carana

The Google Earth view below shows an Arctic Cyclone going over Alaska and entering the Arctic Ocean.

Arctic - Google Earth view
The warm rain and wind will further deteriorate the North Pole Ice Cap.

In case you're looking for news in Tropical Storm ISAAC, see the images below.

Tropical Storm ISAAC - Google Earth view
Tropical Storm ISAAC - NOAA image
Above image and the image below are from the NOAA National Hurricane Center. For updates on ISAAC, check that site!
Tropical Storm ISAAC - NOAA image


Arctic sea ice extent update

The image below shows sea ice extent as calculated by the Polar View team at the University of Bremen, Germany, updated August 25, 2012.


The image below, edited from the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC), shows the situation according to the NSIDC updated at August 23, 2012. It's clear that Arctic sea ice extent looks set to reach the 2007 record low within days, if it hasn't been reached already now.


For updates, see the daily images produced by the NSIDC. Note that, to calculate extent, both the NSIDC and the Univeristy of Bremen include areas that show at least 15% sea ice. In the image below, from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), areas with ice concentration higher than 30% are included to calculate ice extent.


Record low sea ice area


Arctic sea ice area reached a record low of 2.87746 million square km on the 230th day of 2012, as illustrated on the image below by The Cryosphere Today.


Below the sea surface temperature anomaly for August 20, 2012, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).



Rising temperatures in the Arctic threaten to trigger methane releases, as shown on the poster below.


The poster forms part of the updated presentation Why act now, and how?

Tipping Points

The increasing melt may be a harbinger of greater changes such as the release of methane compounds from frozen soils that could exacerbate warming, and a thaw of the Greenland ice sheet, which would contribute to rising sea levels, NASA’s top climate scientist, James Hansen, said in an e-mail interview, reports Bloomberg.

“Our greatest concern is that loss of Arctic sea ice creates a grave threat of passing two other tipping points -- the potential instability of the Greenland ice sheet and methane hydrates,” Hansen said. “These latter two tipping points would have consequences that are practically irreversible on time scales of relevance to humanity.”


Above image shows methane levels over a period of four years, from August 1, 2008, to August 1, 2012.


Above image shows methane levels over one years, from August 1, 2011, to August 1, 2012. This shows a marked increase in methane levels on the last of the four years further above.


Above image shows methane levels from August 1, 2012, to August 15, 2012. The image shows high levels of methane across the northern hemisphere. Note the high levels above Greenland.

Arctic sea ice updates




Above diagram shows sea ice extent as calculated by the Polar View team at the University of Bremen, Germany.

Paul Beckwith warns that a second cyclone is threatening to batter the remaining sea ice soon.

View Paul's presentation by clicking on the link below.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByLujhsHsxP7cnB0bXhNNFFSQjQ/edit


Or, view the presentation in the window below (it may take some time for the file to fully load).



and below, Paul's August 17 update:

Opening the Doorways to Doom

Snow and ice protect the Arctic from overheating in summer. Firstly the brightness of the snow and ice cover ensures that most sunlight gets reflected back into space. Secondly, a lot of the sunlight that isn't reflected will be consumed by the process of turning snow and ice into water, which occurs while temperatures remain at the melting point of 0°C (32°F, 273.15 K). 

The Arctic is further protected from overheating by the polar jet stream, which keeps cold air in the Arctic and keeps warm air out. 
The polar jet stream can travel at speeds greater than 100 mph. Here, the fastest winds are colored red; slower winds are blue. View animated version here. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Accelerated warming in the Arctic can alter the polar jet stream in a number of ways, firstly by slowing its speed and secondly by increasing its waviness. Larger swings in the jet stream allow frigid air from the Arctic to plunge farther south, as well as warm, moist tropical air to penetrate northward, explains Jennifer Francis, research professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University. 

Accelerated warming in the Arctic comes with many feedbacks, and this "open doors feedback" is only one of them. Higher temperatures and more open water in the Arctic can also be expected to increase the danger that storms will batter the sea ice with greater ferocity. 



In many ways, it's opening the doorways to doom. The biggest danger is that Arctic methane stores will weaken, causing huge amounts of methane to be released, triggering warming that could escalate into runaway global warming.  

CryoSat


The image below shows how much the older, thicker sea ice has declined over the years. This decline doesn't become apparent when focusing on sea ice extent; volume measurements are needed to reveal this decline.

Old versus new ice in Arctic: The maps show the median age of sea ice in March 1985 (left) and March 2011 (right).
Overall, the proportion of old ice has decreased. By March 2011, ice over 4 years old accounts for less than
10% of the Arctic ice cover. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder.
The screenshot below shows GHRSST volume measurements from National Centre for Ocean Forecasting website.


The European Space Agency's CryoSat promises to deliver an even clearer picture. One of the scientists analyzing the CryoSat data, Dr Seymour Laxon, said in April 2012 that CryoSat's volume estimate is very similar to that of PIOMAS, the model developed at the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington.

In a recent interview, Dr Laxon said that if the current trend continues, the Arctic could be ice-free at the height of summer by the end of the decade.

John Nissen, Chair of the Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG), comments: "Dr Laxon failed to mention the data on sea ice thickness that has been collected over many years by sea ice expert Professor Peter Wadhams of the University of Cambridge, who now considers that the Arctic Ocean will be seasonally free of sea ice most probably by September 2016. PIOMAS sea ice volume data suggest that a collapse in sea ice area could occur even sooner, as discussed on the AMEG blog posting."

Sea ice extent update August 14, 2012

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado has released an update. Excerpts follow below, for the full post, see A summer storm in the Arctic.

Arctic sea ice extent during the first two weeks of August continued to track below 2007 record low daily ice extents. As of August 13, ice extent was already among the four lowest summer minimum extents in the satellite record, with about five weeks still remaining in the melt season.

Arctic sea ice extent as of August 13, 2012. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
The average pace of ice loss since late June has been rapid at just over 100,000 square kilometers (38,000 square miles) per day. However, this pace nearly doubled for a few days in early August during a major Arctic cyclonic storm, discussed below.

Unlike the summer of 2007 when a persistent pattern of high pressure was present over the central Arctic Ocean and a pattern of low pressure was over the northern Eurasian coast, the summer of 2012 has been characterized by variable conditions. Air tempertures at the 925 hPa level (about 3000 feet above the ocean surface) of 1 to 3 degrees Celsius (1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1981 to 2012 average have been the rule from central Greenland, northern Canada, and Alaska northward into the central Arctic Ocean. 

Cooler than average conditions (1 to 2 degrees Celsius or 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) were observed in a small region of eastern Siberia extending into the East Siberian Sea, helping explain the persistence of low concentration ice in this region through early August.

August 6, 2012, 06:00 GMT surface weather analysis, showing a very strong cyclone over the central Arctic Ocean north of Alaska. The isobars (lines of equal pressure) are very tightly packed around the low pressure system, indicating strong winds. Greenland is on the right side of the figure, Canada at the bottom. Credit: Canadian Meteorological Centre
A low pressure system entered the Arctic Ocean from the eastern Siberian coast on August 4 and then strengthened rapidly over the central Arctic Ocean. On August 6 the central pressure of the cyclone reached 964 hPa, an extremely low value for this region. It persisted over the central Arctic Ocean over the next several days, and slowly dissipated. The storm initially brought warm and very windy conditions to the Chukchi and East Siberian seas (August 5), but low temperatures prevailed later.

On three consecutive days (August 7, 8, and 9), sea ice extent dropped by nearly 200,000 square kilometers (77,220 square miles). This could be due to mechanical break up of the ice and increased melting by strong winds and wave action during the storm.

The image below, from the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI), shows that sea ice extent took a huge dive early August and has consolidated since, as the winds settled down.

Credit: Centre for Ocean and Ice, Danish Meteorological Institute
Note that, to calculate extent, DMI includes areas with ice concentration higher than 30% (NSIDC includes areas that show at least 15% sea ice). 

Another Arctic Cyclone brewing

Paul Beckwith fears that another Arctic cyclone could be starting up about 5 days from now. 

GFSx model shows it churning from about August 19th or 20th onward to the end of the forecast (at least for 5 days+). It appears that this storm will be positioned closer to the Atlantic side, and be north of Greenland. 

There will be a very high pressure mass of warm air over Greenland and the cyclonic flow will be pushing ice toward the Atlantic. Paul stands by his prediction of no sea ice in the Arctic by September 30th. There still is some 30 to 40+ days of melt season left. Paul adds that the 40+ days will more likely apply due to warmer water from storm churning.

Paul Beckwith, B.Eng, M.Sc. (Physics), Ph. D. student (Climatology); Part-time Professor, University of Ottawa

View Paul's presentation by clicking on the link below:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByLujhsHsxP7dUQwYXJ6bXRSd00

Or, view the presentation in the window below (it may take some time for the file to fully load).


Getting the picture

Have a look at the picture below. It shows a graph based on data calculated by the Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean Modeling and Assimilation System (PIOMAS) developed at the Applied Physics Laboratory/Polar Science Center at the University of Washington.
image from arctische pinguin - click to enlarge
The PIOMAS data for the annual minimum values are the black dots. The trend (in red) is added by Wipneus and points at 2015 as the year when ice volume will reach zero. Note that the red line points at the start of the year 2015. The minimum in September 2014 will be already be close to zero, with perhaps a few hundred cubic km remaining just north of Greenland and Canada.
image from arctische pinguin - click to enlarge
Above image, again based on PIOMAS data, shows trends added by Wipneus for each month of the year. The black line shows that the average for the month September looks set to reach zero a few months into the year 2015, while the average for October (purple line) will reach zero before the start of the year 2016. Similarly, the average for August (red line) looks set to reach zero before the start of the year 2016.

In conclusion, it looks like there will be no sea ice from August 2015 through to October 2015, while a further three months look set to reach zero in 2017, 2018 and 2019 (respectively July, November and June). Before the start of the year 2020, in other words, there will be zero sea ice for the six months from June through to November.

Actually, events may unfold even more rapidly. As the ice gets thinner, it becomes more prone to break up if there are storms. At the same time, the frequency and intensity of storms looks set to increase as temperatures rise and as there will be more open water in the Arctic Ocean.


Above photo features Peter Wadhams, professor of Ocean Physics, and Head of the Polar Ocean Physics Group in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge. Professor Wadhams has been measuring the sea ice in the Arctic for the 40 years, getting underneath the ice with the assistance of submarines, collecting ice thickness data and monitoring the thinning of the ice. This enabled 1970s data and 1980s data to be compared, which showed that the ice had thinned by about 15%. Satellite measurements only started in 1979.

Thinning of the ice is only one of the problems. "The next stage will be a collapse," Professor Wadhams warns, "where the winter growth is more than offset by the summer melt. If we look at the volume of ice that is present in the summer, the trend is so rapidly downwards that this collapse might happen within three or four years."

Apart from melting, strong winds can also influence sea ice extent, as happened in 2007 when much ice was driven across the Arctic Ocean by southerly winds. The fact that this occurred can only lead us to conclude that this could happen again. Natural variability offers no reason to rule out such a collapse, since natural variability works both ways, it could bring about such a collapse either earlier or later than models indicate.

In fact, the thinner the sea ice gets, the more likely an early collapse is to occur. It is accepted science that global warming will increase the intensity of extreme weather events, so more heavy winds and more intense storms can be expected to increasingly break up the remaining ice, both mechanically and by enhancing ocean heat transfer to the under-ice surface.

Recent events in the Arctic underline this warning. A huge cyclone battered the sea ice early August 2012. The image below, from The Cryosphere Today, shows a retreat in sea ice area to 3.09958 million km2 on the 222nd day of 2012, down from 3.91533 million km2 on the 212th day of 2012, i.e. 815,750 km2 less in ten days. Or, more than one-fifth less in just ten days.

Image from  The Cryosphere Today - click to enlarge

Charting Mankind’s Arctic Methane Emission Exponential Expressway to Total Extinction in the Next 50 Years

By Malcolm P.R. Light
August 10, 2012

Abstract

The exponential increase in the Arctic atmospheric methane derived from the destabilization of the subsea Arctic methane hydrates is defined by both the exponential decrease in the volume of Arctic sea ice due to global warming and the exponential decrease in the continent wide reflectivity (albedo) of the Greenland ice cap caused by increasing rates of surface melting which reach minima around 2014, 2015.

The high anomalous atmospheric methane contents recorded this year at Barrow Point Alaska (up to 2500 ppb - Carana 2012b) and the fact that the surface atmospheric methane contents may be linked via a stable partial pressure gradient with increased maximum methane contents in the world encompassing global warming veil (estimated at ca 1460 ppb methane) makes it imperative that the Merlin lidar satellite be launched as soon as is feasibly possible. The Merlin lidar satellite will give us a clear idea of how high the Earth’s stratospheric methane concentrations are in this poorly documented giant methane reservoir formed above the ozone layer at 30 km to 50 km altitude (Ehret, 2010).

Methane detecting Lidar instruments could also be installed immediately on the International Space Station to give early warning of the methane buildup in the stratosphere and act as a back up in case the Merlin satellite fails.

Unless immediate and concerted action is taken by governments and oil companies to depressurize the Arctic subsea methane reserves by extracting the methane, liquefying it and selling it as a green house gas energy source, rising sea levels will breach the Thames Barrier by 2029 flooding London. The base of the Washington Monument (D.C.) will be inundated by 2031. Total global deglaciation will finally cause the sea level to rise up the lower 35% of the Washington Monument by 2051 (68.3 m or 224 feet above present sea level).





Introduction

Recent atmospheric methane observations (May 01, 2012) at Barrow Point Alaska show extreme methane concentrations as high as 2500 ppb (2.5 ppm Methane, Figure 1)(Generated by ESRL/GMD May 01, 2012 from Carana, 2012b). The present atmospheric methane concentration at Point Barrow exceeds all previous measurements in the Arctic and if it represented the mean atmospheric concentration after an extended period of subsea Arctic methane emission (10 to 20 years) at a methane global warming potential (GWP) of 100 (Dessus et al. 2008) it would be equal to a 2.5 degrees C mean global temperature increase and a methane-carbon output of some 6 Gt. This would be equivalent to adding and extra 250 ppm of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or about 2/3 of the present carbon dioxide content.


The rising light Arctic methane migration routes have been interpreted on the Hippo profile in Figure 2a (from Wofsy et al. et al. 2009) using the inflexion points on the temperature and methane concentration profiles similar to the system used to identify deep oceanic current trends using salinity and temperature data (Tharp and Frankel, 1986). The light Arctic methane is rising almost vertically up to the stratosphere between 60o North and the North Pole. This is consistent with the methane rising in the same way as hydrogen with respect to the cold dry polar air because it has almost half the density of air at STP(Engineering Toolbox, 2011) (methane in wet air may be transported horizontally by storm systems). In addition because methane has a global warming potential of close to 100 during the first 15 to 20 years of its life (Dessus et al. 2001) it will preferentially warm up and expand compared to the other atmospheric gases and thus drop even further in density making it much lighter than the air. This methane rises into the upper stratosphere where it is trapped below the hydrogen against which it has an upper diffuse boundary as shown by the fall off in methane concentration between 40 km and 50 km altitude (Figure 2a after Nassar et al. 2005).

It is clear from the flattening of the methane concentration trend in the stratosphere between 30 km and 47 km (Nassar et al. 2005) that this probably represents an expanding, world encompassing methane global warming veil (Figure 2a after Nassar et al. 2005). This stratospheric methane is above the ozone layer and it appears entirely stable between 30 km and 40 km where it shows little change (Figure 2a after Nassar et al. 2005). It is therefore very likely that the methane global warming veil will form a giant reservoir for quickly rising low density methane emitted into the dry Arctic atmosphere by progressive destabilization of subsea Arctic methane hydrates (Light, 2011, 2012) combined with smaller amounts of methane formed by methanogenesis (Allen and Allen, 1990; Lopatin 1971). Much of the dry, light methane is able to bypass the ozone layer unimpeded in a tropospheric - stratospheric circulation system to be discussed later.

There is a transition zone from about 60o to 65o North where the methane begins to spiral outwards from the Arctic region towards the mid latitudes and upwards towards the stratosphere to reach the base of the ozone layer where it is being mixed into the stratosphere by giant vortices active at different times (Light 2012; NSIDC 2011a).

The continuous vertical motion of the methane in the Arctic region as it rises to the stratosphere between 60o to 65o North which has a lateral motion impressed on it at lower latitudes must set up a methane partial pressure - concentration gradient between the Arctic surface atmospheric methane emissions and the stratospheric methane global warming veil. Therefore any marked increase in the surface methane concentration and partial pressure should be marked by similar increases in the upper stratosphere within the methane global warming veil.

A further consequence of the light methane rising like hydrogen into the upper stratosphere where it forms a stable zone beneath the hydrogen between 30 km and 50 km height, is that this methane is never recorded in the mean global warming gas measurements made at Mauna Loa. We therefore have a completely separate high reservoir for methane, which at the moment we only have vague information on and it may contain sufficient methane gas to multiply the Mauna Loa readings by a considerable amount.



Graphic Display of The Effects of the Methane Warming Veil

Figure 2b is a graphic display of the atmosphere from 0 to 55 km altitude versus increasing Arctic atmospheric methane concentration reaching up to 6000 ppb (6 ppmv methane). The troposphere, tropopause, stratosphere, stratopause, mesosphere, and ozone layer are from Heicklen, 1976. The various events related to global warming (droughts, water stress, coral bleaching and death, deglaciation, sea level rise and major global extinction) are from Parry et al. 2007.

Figure 2b has been designed to graphically portray the growth of the subsea Arctic atmospheric methane as new observations become available and how this build up strengthens the methane concentration in the stratosphere where it forms a world encompassing methane global warming veil at an altitude of 30 km to 47 km. Figure 2b will be used to progressively chart mankind's Arctic methane emission, exponential expressway to extinction within the next half century.

As the light-rising Arctic methane is spread around the world by the Arctic stratospheric vortex system (NSIDC 2011a), it can be expected to lead to more ozone and water vapor in the stratosphere, both of which will add to the greenhouse effect and thus cause temperatures to increase globally. In the Arctic, where there is very little water vapour in the atmosphere, the ozone layer may well be further depleted, because the rising methane behaves like a chloro-fluoro-hydrocarbon (CFC) under the action of sunlight increasing the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation on the Earth’s surface (Engineering Toolbox, 2011; Anitei, 2007). Large abrupt releases of methane in the Arctic lead to high local concentrations of methane in the atmosphere and hydroxyl depletion, making that methane will persist longer at its highest warming potential, i.e. of over 100 times that of carbon dioxide. (Carana, 2011a). The presence of a large hole in the Arctic ozone layer in 2011 is most likely a result of this same process of ozone depletion caused by a buildup of greenhouse gases from the massive upward transfer of methane from the Arctic emission zones through the lower stratosphere up into the stratospheric veil between 30 km and 47 km height (Science Daily, 2011).

Anomalous Arctic Atmospheric Methane Concentrations

The extremely high content of atmospheric methane measured in May 2012 at Barrow Point Alaska (2500 ppb) represents a very dangerous turn of events in the Arctic and further substantiates the claim that the whole Arctic has now become a latent subsea methane hydrate sourced blowout zone which will require immediate remedial action if there is any faint hope of containing the now fast increasing (exponential!) rates of methane eruptions into the atmosphere (Light 2012c - Angels proposal; see end of this text).

The exponential increase in the Arctic atmospheric methane content from the destabilization of the subsea methane hydrates is defined by the exponential decrease in the volume of Arctic sea ice caused by the resulting global warming due to the build up of the atmospheric methane (Carana, 2012d). The exponential increase in the Arctic atmospheric methane is also implied by an exponential decrease in the continent wide reflectivity (albedo) of the Greenland ice cap caused by increasing rates of surface melting (Figure 3; NASA Mod 10A1 data, from Carana, 2012c).

Albedo data for Greenland shows that it will become free of a continuous snow cover by about 2014, so that the underlying old ice cover which has low reflectivity will be totally exposed to the sun in the summer (Carana, 2012c). This darker material will become a major heat absorber after 2014 starting the fast melt down of the Greenland ice cap and this process will probably affect the older ice in the floating Arctic sea ice fields. The Arctic ocean will also become free of sea ice by 2015 exposing the low reflectivity ocean water directly to the sun, causing a high rate of temperature rise in Arctic waters and the consequent destabilization of shelf and slope methane hydrates releasing large volumes of methane into the atmosphere (Carana, 2012d; AIRS data Yurganov, 2012).

As a consequence, the enhanced global warming will melt the global ice sheets at a fast increasing rate causing the sea level to begin rising at 15.182 cm/yr in the first few years after 2015 giving an accurate way of gauging the worldwide continental ice loss (Figure 3). This sudden increase in the rate of sea level rise will mark the last moment mankind will have to take control of the Arctic wide blowout of methane into the atmosphere and a massive effort must be made by governments and oil companies to stem the flow of the erupting subsea methane in the Arctic before this time. The loss of complete snow cover in Greenland precedes the loss of the sea ice cap in the Arctic by a year which may be due to the more extreme weather conditions that usually prevail over continents than over the sea which moderates the weather.

Methane and Ozone Circulation

The components of the atmosphere undergo diffusion by a number of processes. The mean speed of horizontal displacement of the stratosphere around the Earth is known to be about 120 km/hr from the Krakatoa eruption in 1883 (Heicklen, 1976). Winds also transfer material northward and southward in the stratosphere in quite a different pattern to that of the tropospheric wind flows (Heicklen, 1976). Mean wind velocities within the global methane warming veil and above it (36 km to 91 km altitude) are some 48 m/sec during the day and 56 m/sec at night (Olivier 1942, 1948). Large latitudinal variations in the atmospheric density at 100 km altitude require meridional flows of 10 to 50 m/sec (Heicklen, 1976).

At subarctic latitudes at the height of the global methane warming veil (30 km to 50 km altitude) the ozone concentration lies between 1.7 to 1.9*10^12 molecules/cc to 5.4*10^10 molecules/cc and does not vary during the day (Heicklen, 1976). The sub-arctic ozone reaches a maximum in the lower stratosphere in winter at an altitude of 17 km to 19 km (7.7*10^12 molecules/cc) and in summer at an altitude of 18 km to 19 km (5.1*10^12 molecules/cc)(Heicklen, 1976).

The seasonal variation of ozone in the stratosphere in Arctic latitudes is caused by a circulation transfer system which moves ozone from the upper stratosphere in equatorial and mid-latitudes to the Arctic lower stratosphere during the winter (Heicklen, 1976). The stored Arctic lower stratospheric ozone is lost in the summer by chemical dissociation when it moves downwards or by photosynthetic destruction if it moves upwards (Heicklen, 1976).

The Hippo methane concentration and temperature profiles shown in Figures 2a and 2b extend from the surface to some 14.4 km altitude and from the North Pole southwards across the Equator to a latitude of -40o south (Wofsy et al. 2009). As already described the methane flow trends on Hippo methane concentration and temperature profiles have been interpreted in detail using a similar system to that used by the Meteor expedition in determining deep ocean circulation patterns from salinity and temperature data (Figure 2a - see Tharp and Frankel, 1986).

Methane erupted from destabilizing methane hydrates in the subsea Arctic and of methanogenic origin has almost half the density of air at STP in dry Arctic conditions and is seen to be rising vertically to the top of the Troposphere between 70o North and the North Pole on the Hippo methane concentration profiles (Engineering Toolbox, 2011; Wofsy et al. 2009 ). On the Hippo data, at latitudes less than 70o North, the rising methane clouds are being spun out and laterally spread in the middle and upper troposphere and upper stratosphere by stratospheric vortices (NSIDC, 2011a). The methane appears to be entering the lower stratosphere in the low latitudes between 25o North and the equator which it then overlaps and is carried into the Southern Hemisphere to almost -40o South (Figure 2a)(Light 2011c). In the equatorial regions the growth of the methane global warming veil will amplify the effects of El Nino in the Pacific further enhancing its deleterious effects on the climate.

As this vertically and laterally migrating methane enters the stratosphere in equatorial and mid-latitude positions it is helping to displace the equatorial and mid-latitude ozone which migrates downwards and northwards towards the north pole (Heicklen, 1976) to complete the cycle. The methane may be partly drawn up into the lower and upper stratosphere by a global pressure differential set up by the poleward and downward motion of the ozone (Heicklen, 1976) Once the methane has entered the stratosphere and has helped to displace some of the ozone, it is able to accumulate in the upper stratosphere beneath the hydrogen as a continuous stable layer between 30 and 47 km forming a world wide global warming veil (Figures 2a and 2b; Light 2011c).

In the Arctic region methane has been shown to rise nearly vertically and is locally charging the global warming veil in addition to methane that has diffused from mid latitude and equatorial regions. There must therefore exist a partial pressure gradient between the Arctic surface methane anomalies and the upper stratosphere methane global warming veil such that any increase of the surface methane concentration and partial pressure should lead to a transfer of methane into the upper stratosphere and to a similar increase in the partial pressure and concentration of the methane there. The methane partial pressure gradient that exists between the anomalous Arctic ocean surface methane emissions and the stratospheric methane global warming veil at 30 km to 47 km height is partly controlled by the complex motions and reactions of the Arctic ozone layer which separates the troposphere from the upper stratosphere and shows little variation in the day or between summer and winter (Heicklen, 1976).

Consequently the concentration of the methane in the upper stratospheric global warming veil should track the increase of Arctic atmospheric methane to some degree and knowledge of the latter can allow absolute maximum estimates to be made on the magnitude of the former. This will give a rough estimate of what the highest value the methane concentration is likely to reach within the global warming veil within the Arctic area. This is a worst case scenario which has to be assumed in order to prevent Murphy’s law being operative (i.e. if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong in estimating the maximum methane value). An alternative is to view this solution of the methane concentration in the global warming veil as German over-engineering in order to eliminate any possible errors in the estimate of the maximum value. My Father, a Saxon would have commended me on this approach. This is precisely what mainstream world climatologists have failed to do in their modeling of the effects of Arctic methane hydrate emissions on the mean heat balance of the atmosphere and why we are now facing such a severe climatic catastrophe from which we may very likely not escape. Let us hope and pray that the Merlin Lidar methane detection satellite does not find methane magnitudes in the Arctic global warming methane veil (30 km – 47 km altitude) at the levels predicted in this paper, when it is launched in 2014.

The maximum global methane veil concentration in the mid latitudes (30o to 60o North) between 30 km and 40 km altitude was estimated by occultation at some 0.97 ppmv methane (970 ppb) between February to April, 2004 (Nassar et al. 2005). In 2004 - 2005 the Arctic atmosphere at Point Barrow, Alaska reached an anomalous maximum of some 2.014 ppmv methane (2014 ppb)(Carana, 2012e). This means that the most extreme methane concentration anomalies in the Arctic (Point Barrow) are leading the maximum concentration in the global warming methane veil by some 1.044 ppmv methane (1044 ppb). Consequently as a first rule of thumb assuming that the vertical methane partial pressure gradient has remained relatively unchanged, we can estimate the maximum methane concentration within the Arctic methane global warming veil between 30 km and 47 km height by subtracting 1.044 ppmv methane (1044 ppb) from measured surface Arctic atmospheric value at the same time.

High methane concentrations of 2 ppmv (2000 ppb) were being reached in the Arctic in 2011 (position a. in Figure 2b) similar to those recorded in 2004 – 2005 at Point Barrow Alaska (Carana, 2012e). It is therefore likely that by 2011 that the maximum concentration of methane in the methane global warming veil had remained relatively unchanged since 2004. This is consistent with the start of major methane emissions in the Arctic in August 2010 as recorded at the Svalbard station and in the East Siberian Shelf in 2011 which would not have given the emitted gases sufficient time to reach the upper stratosphere(Light, 2012a, Shakova et al. 2010a, b and c).

On May 01, 2012 an atmospheric methane concentration of 2.5 ppmv (2500 ppb) was recorded at Point Barrow indicating an increase in the maximum methane concentration anomaly of 0.5 ppmv methane (500 ppb) in one year (yellow spike on Figure 1; position b. in Figure 2b)(ESRL/GMO graph from Carana 2012b). We can therefore predict conservatively that the maximum concentration of the methane in the Arctic stratospheric methane global warming veil between 30 km and 47 km altitude may be as high as 1.456 ppmv methane (1456 ppb) (= 2500 -1044 ppmv) (position b. in Figure 2b)(ESRL/GMO graph from Carana 2012b).

Assuming that the maximum Arctic surface atmospheric methane content continues to increase now at a rate of 0.5 ppmv (500 ppb) each year we can roughly predict that by 2013 it will have reached 3 ppmv (3000 ppb) and by 2014, 3.5 ppmv (3500 ppb) which is when the Merlin Lidar methane detection satellite will be launched (Ehret, 2010). Using the previous method of predicting the maximum likely methane content in the Arctic methane global warming veil between 30 km and 47 km altitude, the maximum for 2013 is 1.956 ppmv methane (1956 ppb)(position c. in Figure 2b) and for 2014 is 2.456 ppmv methane (2456 ppb) (position d. in Figure 2b). This means that by the time the Merlin Lidar satellite is launched the Arctic Ocean will have emited sufficient methane to have surpassed the 2oC anomaly limit. Once the entire atmospheric mean exceeds a 2oC temperature increase it will precipitate fast deglaciation, the start of widespread inundation of worldwide coastlines, extensive droughts and water stress for billions of people (Figure 2b)(after Parry et al. 2007).

This high predicted concentration of methane in the Arctic methane global warming veil in 2014 is consistent with the exponentially falling albedo data for the Greenland ice cap which suggests that major melting will begin in 2014 (Carana, 2012c). The exponential reduction in volume of the Arctic sea ice to zero in 2015 (Carana, 2012d) will precipitate a massive increase in the release of Arctic subsea methane from destabilization of the methane hydrates as the dark ice free Arctic ocean absorbs large quantities of heat from the sun (Light, 2012a).

MERLIN Lidar Satellite

The MERLIN lidar satellite (Methane Remote Sensing Lidar Mission) , which is a joint collaboration between France and Germany will orbit the Earth at 650 km altitude and will be able to detect the methane concentration in the atmosphere from 50 km altitude to the surface of the Earth (Ehret, 2010). The Lidar methane detection instrument was jointly developed by DLR (Deutches Zentrum für Luft –und Raumfahrt), ADLARES GmBH and E. ON Ruhrgas AG (Ehret, 2010).

This satellite is scheduled to be launched sometime in 2014 (Ehret, 2010) and will be the first time that real time data will be able to detect the concentration of methane within the world encompassing methane global warming veil between 30 km and 47 km altitude and give us the first detailed picture of the size of the beast we are dealing with. Previous indications of this layer in the mid latitudes was made using occultation (Nassar et al. 2005)

The high anomalous atmospheric methane contents recorded this year (May 01) at Barrow Point Alaska (see Figure 2b, Carana 2012b) and the fact that they may be linked via a stable partial pressure gradient with increased maximum methane contents in the world encompassing global warming veil (estimated at ca 1456 ppb methane) makes it imperative that the Merlin lidar satellite be launched as soon as is feasibly possible so we can get a clear idea of how high the Earth’s stratospheric methane concentrations are. The Merlin satellite will continuously give us real time information on the size of the stratospheric methane global warming veil that is gathering its strength in the upper atmosphere.

This information shows how extremely serious the Arctic methane emission problem is and how urgently we need to measure the status of the Arctic stratospheric methane global warming veil between 30 km and 47 km height. An early warning of high methane contents in the methane global warming veil will give humanity time to react to the existing and new threats that are developing in the Arctic.

Methane detecting Lidar instruments could also be installed immediately on the International Space Station to give us early warning of the methane build up in the stratosphere and act as a back up in case the Merlin satellite fails.



Sea Level Rise

The progressive rise in sea level from 2015 is shown on Figures 3, 4 and 5. Figures 4 and 5 are simplified versions of Figures 7, 8 and 9 in Light 2012a and Figures 12 and 13 in Light 2012c. The various events related to global warming (droughts, water stress, coral bleaching and death, deglaciation, sea level rise and major global extinction) are from Parry et al. 2007. At the time of total worldwide deglaciation, the sea level is estimated to rise some 68.3 metres (224 feet) (Wales, 2012)

The maximum time of inundation of various coastal cities, coastlines and coastal barriers is shown on Table 1 (after Hillen et al. 2010; Hargraves, 2012). Rising sea levels will breach the Thames Barrier by 2029 flooding London. The base of the Washington Monument (D.C.) will be inundated by 2031. Total global deglaciation > will cause the sea level to rise up the lower 35% of the Washington Monument by 2051 (68.3 m or 224 feet above present sea level).

Because of the massive increase in the strength of the storm systems and waves, high rise buildings in many of the coastal city centers will suffer irreparable damage and collapse so that the core zones of the cities will be represented by a massive pile of wave pulverised debris. Unfortunately by that time a large portion of sea life will be extinct and the city debris fields will not form a haven for coral reefs. The seas will probably still be occupied by the long lasting giant jellyfish (such as are now fished off Japan), rays and sharks (living respectively since 670, 415 and 380 million years ago) and the sea floor by coeolocanths (living since 400 million years ago)(Calder, 1984). The city rubble zones will probably be occupied by predatory fish (living since 425 million years ago)(Calder 1984). Life will also continue in the vicinity of oceanic black smokers so long as the oceans remain below boiling point.


ANGELS Proposal

If left alone the subsea Arctic methane hydrates will explosively destabilize on their own due to global warming and produce a massive Arctic wide methane “blowout” that will lead to humanity’s total extinction, probably before the middle of this century (Light 2012 a, b and c). AIRS atmospheric methane concentration data between 2008 and 2012 (Yurganov 2012) show that the Arctic has already entered the early stages of a subsea methane “blowout” so we need to step in as soon as we can (e.g. 2015) to prevent it escalating any further (Light 2012c).

The Arctic Natural Gas Extraction, Liquefaction & Sales (ANGELS) Proposal aims to reduce the threat of large, abrupt releases of methane in the Arctic, by extracting methane from Arctic methane hydrates prone to destabilization (Light, 2012c).

After the Arctic sea ice has gone (probably around 2015) we propose that a large consortium of oil and gas companies/governments set up drilling platforms near the regions of maximum subsea methane emissions and drill a whole series of shallow directional production drill holes into the subsea subpermafrost “free methane” reservoir in order to depressurize it in a controlled manner (Light 2012c). This methane will be produced to the surface, liquefied, stored and transported on LNG tankers as a “green energy” source to all nations, totally replacing oil and coal as the major energy source (Light 2012c). The subsea methane reserves are so large that they can supply the entire earth’s energy needs for several hundreds of years (Light 2012c). By sufficiently depressurizing the Arctic subsea subpermafrost methane it will be possible to draw down Arctic ocean water through the old eruption sites and fracture systems and destabilize the methane hydrates in a controlled way thus shutting down the entire Arctic subsea methane blowout (Light 2012c).



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