Algae on Ice: Another factor.

[Lord of Planar]

I never came across this before today. Nature has a new article about algae being a variable in the melting of the Greenland ice sheets. This coloring, no doubt, has profound effects on the albedo of ice.

Algae are melting away the Greenland ice sheet : Nature News & Comment

Interesting site for those who care:

https://blackandbloom.org/

 

[Tim the plumber]

It will be good if they actually produce nimbers for the Watts per square meter of heat energy absorbtion maximum. That would allow a simple assesment of the maximum potential ice melt per summer.

That would give the maximum ice loss rate once you allow for fresh snowfall and the flow rate of the glaciers.

 

[Lord of Planar]

I was thinking about this. While reading it again, I laughed at something I skimmed over initially:

“They’re extremely lazy algae — they sleep for nine months and then wake up and have a party,”
​

I'm thinking these algae never existed in these conditions as large as now. Without aerosol pollutants, the algae doesn't have any nutrition to grow. Natural occurring aerosols are very spotty.

This then leads me to wonder if these little critters, if released in the Mars polar regions, could survive there. Maybe we could start Terra-forming Mars with them.

 

[Tim the plumber]

I was thinking about this. While reading it again, I laughed at something I skimmed over initially:

“They’re extremely lazy algae — they sleep for nine months and then wake up and have a party,”
​

I'm thinking these algae never existed in these conditions as large as now. Without aerosol pollutants, the algae doesn't have any nutrition to grow. Natural occurring aerosols are very spotty.

This then leads me to wonder if these little critters, if released in the Mars polar regions, could survive there. Maybe we could start Terra-forming Mars with them.

Perhaps Mars already has them.

I have seen the argument that there is a mechanism for such seeding already naturally in place where decently large asteroid impacts will throw stuff all over the solar system. Some of it will land on all the inner planets. Bacteria could be the first space travelers.

 

[Jack Hays]

Sea Ice News
[h=1]NSIDC on Arctic Sea Ice: ‘A new record low September ice extent now appears to be unlikely.”[/h]From the National Snow and Ice Data Center. A cool and stormy Arctic in July An extensive area of lower than average temperatures in the Central Arctic and the Siberian coast, attended by persistent low pressure systems in the same region, led to slightly slower than average sea ice decline through the month. The stormy…

 

[Lord of Planar]

Sea Ice News
[h=1]NSIDC on Arctic Sea Ice: ‘A new record low September ice extent now appears to be unlikely.”[/h]From the National Snow and Ice Data Center. A cool and stormy Arctic in July An extensive area of lower than average temperatures in the Central Arctic and the Siberian coast, attended by persistent low pressure systems in the same region, led to slightly slower than average sea ice decline through the month. The stormy…

I love how the Gods laugh at the alarmists.

 

[Mithrae]

And here's what a slightly lower than average sea ice decline looks like:

The lowest recorded time-of-year sea ice extent turned into the second lowest recorded sea ice extent. Those dummy alarmists.

From the interactive graphs on that site, the lowest summer minimums in order were 2012, 2007, 2011 and 2015, with those last four really not that far apart. By the looks of it 2016 may (or may not) easily beat any of those years except probably 2012.

 

[Mithrae]

I'm being silly of course. Any reasonable person can see that we're looking at a pause in sea ice decline for 4 years and counting. Silly alarmists.

 

[jmotivator]

Sea Ice News
[h=1]NSIDC on Arctic Sea Ice: ‘A new record low September ice extent now appears to be unlikely.”[/h]From the National Snow and Ice Data Center. A cool and stormy Arctic in July An extensive area of lower than average temperatures in the Central Arctic and the Siberian coast, attended by persistent low pressure systems in the same region, led to slightly slower than average sea ice decline through the month. The stormy…

They seem so sad about it.

 

[Jack Hays]

I'm being silly of course. Any reasonable person can see that we're looking at a pause in sea ice decline for 4 years and counting. Silly alarmists.

Arctic / Sea ice
[h=1]Interesting and positive changes in Arctic sea ice volume[/h]Are we seeing an Arctic change? Three out of the four most recent years show increase in ice volume not seen since 2003. Guest essay by Frank Lansner DMI publishes daily their Arctic ice volume data in the form of graphs. From these it is possible to retrieve the data and plot them as you like.…

 

[Deuce]

I love how the Gods laugh at the alarmists.