Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Arctic in Hot Water: Sea Ice Minimal in Chukchi, Bering Seas
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
November 19, 2019

Share

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. research vessel Sikuliaq can break through ice as thick as 2.5 feet. In the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska this month, which should be brimming with floes, its limits likely won’t be tested.

“We’re trying to understand what the new autumn looks like in the Arctic.” — Jim Thomson, an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory
University of Washington researchers left Nome on Nov. 7 on the 261-foot ship, crossed through the Bering Strait and will record observations at multiple sites including Utqiaġvik, formerly Barrow, America’s northernmost community. Sea ice is creeping toward the city from the east in the Beaufort Sea, but to find sea ice in the Chukchi, the Sikuliaq would have to head northwest for about 200 miles.
In the new reality of the U.S. Arctic, open water is the November norm for the Chukchi. Instead of thick, years-old ice, researchers are studying waves and how they may pummel the northern Alaska coastline.
“We’re trying to understand what the new autumn looks like in the Arctic,” said Jim Thomson, an oceanographer at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.
Chukchi sea ice in early November was at its lowest level on record, said Rick Thoman, a climate expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ International Arctic Research Center and a former National Weather Service forecaster.
Low ice is a problem for people of the coast. Communities north and south of the Bering Strait rely on near-shore ice to act as a natural sea wall, protecting land from erosion brought on by winter storms.
Sea ice is a platform from which to catch crab or cod in Nome, a transportation corridor between villages in Kotzebue Sound and a work station on which to butcher walrus near Gambell.

The Formation of Sea Ice Requires the Ocean Temperature to Be About 28 Degrees

Sea ice is also a one of the most important physical elements of the Chukchi and Bering seas. The cold, salty water underneath ice creates structure in the water column that separates Arctic species from commercially valuable fish such as Pacific cod and walleye pollock. When sea ice melts, it creates conditions important for the development of microorganisms at the base of the food web.
And then there’s wildlife. Sea ice is the prime habitat for polar bears and the preferred location for dens where females give birth. Female walruses with young use sea ice as a resting platform and follow the ice edge south as it moves into the Bering Sea.
The formation of sea ice requires the ocean temperature to be about 28 degrees, the freezing point of saltwater. Historically, ice has formed in the northernmost waters and been moved by currents and wind into the southern Chukchi and Bering seas, where it cools the water, allowing even more ice to form, said Andy Mahoney, a sea ice physicist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute.
Forecasters 20 years ago took it as a given that the water temperature would be cold enough to form sea ice.
“Even at the end of summer you couldn’t get enough heat into the ocean to raise the water temperature significantly above freezing,” Mahoney said. “So it didn’t take much cooling to cool the ocean down to the freezing point.”
Climate warming has brought a harsh new reality. High summer temperatures have warmed the entire water column in the Bering and Chukchi seas. Water temperature from the surface to the ocean bottom remain above normal, delaying ice formation.
“We’ve got a cold atmosphere. We’ve got a strong wind. You’d think we’d be forming ice, but there’s just too much heat left in the ocean,” Mahoney said.

Photo of a view from the main lab of the Sikuliaq in the Chukchi Sea
This Nov. 8, 2019, photo provided by John Guillote shows a view from the main lab of the Sikuliaq in the Chukchi Sea. University of Washington scientists onboard the research vessel are studying the changes and how less sea ice will affect coastlines, which already are vulnerable to erosion because increased waves delivered by storms. More erosion would increase the chance of winter flooding in villages and danger to hunters in small boats. (John Guillote via AP)

Forecasting Sea Ice Is Notoriously Difficult

The water potentially is warm enough to melt ice moving south from northern locations.

“Maybe the horizontal extent conceivably gets up to normal, but it has to be extremely thin and it will be subject to rapid melting if we get into a stormy period in the winter or spring. And even if that doesn’t happen, because it’s thinner, it means it’s going to melt out sooner come next spring.” Rick Thoman, a climate expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ International Arctic Research Center and a former National Weather Service forecaster
“I haven’t seen any direct observations where ice has been transported into the Chukchi Sea and then melted,” Mahoney said. “But the water temperature maps that I’ve seen, they’re still significantly positive in Celsius. And you can’t grow ice, even if you bring ice in, if the water temperatures above freezing, that ice is ultimately going to experience melting from the water temperature.”
Thomson and other scientists on the Sikuliaq will look at how the changes could affect coastlines, which already are eroding. Less ice and more open water translates to a significant threat. Ice acts as a smothering blanket, keeping down the size of waves. Open water increases fetch, the distance over which wave-generating winds blow.
“We know from other projects and other work that the waves are definitely on the increase in the Arctic,” Thomson said.
That means even more erosion, the chance of winter flooding in villages and increased danger to hunters in small boats and longer distances for them to travel to find seals and walruses.
Forecasting sea ice is notoriously difficult but Thoman, the ex-weather forecaster, said he expects a less than robust year for sea ice.
“Maybe the horizontal extent conceivably gets up to normal, but it has to be extremely thin and it will be subject to rapid melting if we get into a stormy period in the winter or spring,” Thoman said. “And even if that doesn’t happen, because it’s thinner, it means it’s going to melt out sooner come next spring.”
[activecampaign form=29]

DON'T MISS

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

DON'T MISS

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

DON'T MISS

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

DON'T MISS

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

DON'T MISS

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

DON'T MISS

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

DON'T MISS

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

DON'T MISS

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

DON'T MISS

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

DON'T MISS

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

UP NEXT

Bomb Cyclone Kills 1 and Knocks Out Power to Over Half a Million Homes Across the Northwest US

UP NEXT

Volunteers Came Back to Nonprofits in 2023, After the Pandemic Tanked Participation

UP NEXT

New Study: Proposed Trump Tariffs Could Cost US Consumers $78 Billion a Year

UP NEXT

Riders Stuck in Midair for Over 2 Hours on Knott’s Berry Farm Ride

UP NEXT

Shouting Racial Slurs, Neo-Nazi Marchers Shock Ohio’s Capital

UP NEXT

More Logging Is Proposed to Help Curb Wildfires in the US Pacific Northwest

UP NEXT

Scientists Fear What’s Next for Public Health if RFK Jr. Is Allowed To ‘Go Wild’

UP NEXT

Warren Slams Biden Admin for Failing to Hold Israel Accountable on Gaza Aid

UP NEXT

Suicides in the US Military Increased in 2023, Continuing a Long-Term Trend

UP NEXT

New FDA Rules for TV Drug Ads: Simpler Language and No Distractions

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

2 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

3 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

3 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

3 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

3 hours ago

Average Rate on a 30-Year Mortgage in the US Rises to Highest Level Since July

4 hours ago

Cutting in Line? American Airlines’ New Boarding Tech Might Stop You at Now Over 100 Airports

4 hours ago

MLB Will Test Robot Umpires at 13 Spring Training Ballparks Hosting 19 Teams

4 hours ago

Death Toll in Gaza From Israel-Hamas War Passes 44,000, Palestinian Officials Say

5 hours ago

Jussie Smollett’s Conviction in 2019 Attack on Himself Is Overturned

5 hours ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

NEW YORK — Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, was chosen Thursday by Donald Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general hours after...

24 minutes ago

24 minutes ago

What to Know About Pam Bondi, Trump’s New Pick for Attorney General

1 hour ago

North Korean Leader Says Past Diplomacy Only Confirmed US Hostility

1 hour ago

Democrats Strike Deal to Get More Biden Judges Confirmed Before Congress Adjourns

2 hours ago

Newsom Gaslights on Potential Gas Price Hikes in Fresno Visit

President Joe Biden with Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, at the Detroit Auto Show, Sept. 14, 2022. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to erase the Biden administration’s tailpipe rules designed to get carmakers to produce electric vehicles, but most U.S. automakers want to keep them. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
3 hours ago

Automakers to Trump: Please Require Us to Sell Electric Vehicles

3 hours ago

President Biden Welcomes 2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics to White House

3 hours ago

Ohtani Makes History With 3rd MVP, Judge Claims 2nd AL Honor

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at First Horizon Coliseum, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Greensboro, NC. (AP/Alex Brandon)
3 hours ago

Trump Chooses Pam Bondi for Attorney General Pick After Gaetz Withdraws

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend