[
link to volcans.blogs-de-voyage.fr]
Even if seismicity is frequent in this area, one is impressed by the seismic swarm that is taking place off the Reykjanes Peninsula. These tectonic events show the forces that are exerted in Iceland, the emergence of the Mid-Atlantic ridge and the witness of the accretion between the North American and Eurasian plates.
the melt season began, the main events ahead
[
link to www.nature.com]
Global carbon dioxide levels near worrisome milestone
Concentrations of greenhouse gas will soon surpass 400 parts per million at sentinel spot.
Richard Monastersky 30 April 2013
Near the moonscape summit of the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, an infrared analyser will soon make history. Sometime in the next month, it is expected to record a daily concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of more than 400 parts per million (p.p.m.), a value not reached at this key surveillance point for a few million years... [
link to bprc.osu.edu]
Jason E. Box, PhD
Byrd Polar Research Center
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA
Phone: +1 614 506 0830
Email: box.11 @ osu.edu
Jason Box Professional Bio
CONTENTS
•Greenland Ice Sheet Snowline
•Greenland Ice Surface Temperature Monitoring
•Greenland Ice Albedo Monitoring
Jason Box @climate_ice
March 2013 was the warmest in SW Greenland since start of Danish on-ice climate monitoring stations in 2007 [
link to www.meltfactor.org]
May 3rd, 2013
Greenland “snow drought” makes big 2013 melt more likelyFigure 1. Western ice sheet snowfall totals are 30%-70% of normal. Brown areas have less than ‘normal’ precipitation:
[
link to www.meltfactor.org]
Multiple melt factors combine to increase the odds of more melt water runoff from the ice sheet during the 2013 melt season:
1.less ‘cold content’ of snow to melt away (ablate) for a given energy input before bare ice is exposed;
2.a longer period of exposed darker bare ice, in this case weeks earlier bare ice exposure is likely unless a big snow dump before or during the coming warm season;
3.Less snow leads to a smaller refreezing capacity in the lower accumulation area. Thanks Robert Fausto of GEUS for reminding me of this one.
4.a possible higher concentration of light absorbing impurities per unit volume of snow, assuming that the impurities are deposited whether or not it snows.
This pattern results from a persistent atmospheric anomaly, blocking cold air transport southward along west Greenland, producing relatively warm temperatures there while northwestern Europe has had a cold winter (Figure 2 [
link to www.meltfactor.org]
The precipitation anomaly is manifesting in abnormally low land and ice sheet reflectivity (albedo) (Figure 3)...
