Nasa's most amableious arctic voyage to date has revised surprisingly high concentrations of ice particles in clouds over greenland, a clue that may help expert Predicted.
“The arctic is changing faster than anywahere else on the plan, so the question we're trying to ask here Patrick Taylor, The Deputy Science Lead for the Mission Known as Arcsix, for Arctic Radiation Cloud aerosol surface interaction experience, Told space.com.
This bold mission to one of the world's most forbidding regions involved sending in iceberg-laden waters below. While Agency Scientists are Still Studying The Data, which was collected last summer, they say it's already clear that dust from greenland's increasing landmards is melting vulnerable sea ice Northern parts of the globe.
It's like a self-reinforcing feedback loop that spells Danger for one of the planet's most vulnerable regions.
How Arcsix Worked
The Arcsix Plane Flew in the Summer of 2024, from May Until 25, When Seasonal Sea Ice Melt was at its height. The team expected to find ice with a thickness of about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters); INTEAD, They Saw a Thickness of Just 7.2 Feet (2.2 Meters). “It's alluding to the fact that thicker sea ice north of greenland is not as sustainable as it on was,” LINETTE Boisvert, The Arcsix Cryosphere Lead, Told Space.com.
The arctic has lost 12% of its whole duty SINCE SATELLIETE Records Began in 1979, Equaling about 1.16 Million Square Miles of ice (3 Million Square Kilomters), An Araya Bigger Tha Alan Alaska, Texas, California and Montana Combined – And the Pace Appars to Be Visibly Accelerating, with Arctic Sea Ice Now Shrinking at a Rate of 12.2% Per Decade, Six Times as Fast Six as the 1990s.
Specifically, nasa launched arcsix to try to find out how long the sea ice in the arctic had left, and the summer of flying yielded “the mosthantsive set of sea ice, cloud, rapiation and aerosol Measurements ever collected in the Arctic, “Taylor said.
Collecting so much data in such a remote place was an extreme logistics challenge, requires a team so far Supplies. “I get shivers just thinking about it,” Christina McClusKey, A Climate Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Science, Told Space.com. One of the transport flights to pitffik space base in far northeastern greenland carried a nasa flag, a gift from the us space force to the base commander, whisplayed it proffely in the busfee Shop and Community Center.
To measure the thickness of the ice, nasa dropped buoys with thermometers attached to gaps between the floating ice. It was a tricky operation: some of the buoys was smashed apart by iCebergs, where others we under threat by curious animals – which is one reason the buoys haad to be Painted.
“If you make them a different color, Polar bears become attracted to them and will destroy them,” Says taylor. Over time, he said, the surviving buoys will yield Valuable Data. ” Simple points, the aircraft data that we have took will tell us spatically what's the variable of that sea ice thick
Why dust?
Climate Models – Scientific Estimates of How the Earth's Climate Might Change in the future – run on supercomputers that have to process enormous amounts of data Every day as cloups forms forms for and displea World. One aspect of these models concerns particles within clouds, which are sometimes only nanometers wide, that need to be scled up and measured across the surface of the Earth.
“The scales we need to understand are Insane,” Says McCluskey. “Clouds are the most fascinating things on the planet, I see them as the way in which everything comes togeether.”
Nasa scientists looking at Seven Years of Satellite Data Had Previous Found That 4.5% of Clouds Below 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) Changed from Liquid to ice when they are good dusty. The scientists estimated that the clouds contained 93 nanograms of dust per cubic meter – but results from the arcsix mission are expected to revise.
“We're trying to figure out where we we are founding all this ice in the clouds,” Says taylor. “The Answer Cold Help Scientists Undrstand The Pace of Arctic Melt.”
Clouds reflex Sunlight and slow down the melting of ice, protecting the Arctic. Ice Crystals Make Clouds Heavier and More Likely to Dissipate, Leaving the ice Vulnerable to Rays of Hot Sun. But the ice can't form in the clouds without sometising to launch on to. That's where the dust come in, providing a kind of “seed” or “nucleus” for the ice to form Around.
Is the Culprit Greenland?
Nasa Scientists Hypothesize that as the ice retreats, more of Greenland's expected landmass is shdding dust, which is then carried north north winds to form ice particles in the clouds in the clouds. These dust-havy clouds then disappear more quickly and leave more arctic ice exposed, Hastening the MELT.
“The Sea Ice North of Greenland Had a Giant Opening in the Summer Months,” Says Boisvert. “We think it's caused by really warm, moist air being blown through fram strait,” a passage between greenland and svalbard, “UP and towards the central arctic.”
Further analysis of the data the team collected is expected to shed light on how quickly the Arctic will lose its ice.
“That's why these results are so important if they help quantify the Amount of ice crystals and we can start plugging that into our models to understand how clouds will change,” Julia Schmale, German scientist who specializes in aerosols and their interactions with clouds, Told Space.com.
