Arctic Watch

Facts About the Arctic

Month: September 2023

Arctic warming by abundant fine sea salt aerosols from blowing snow

Abstract The Arctic warms nearly four times faster than the global average, and aerosols play an increasingly important role in Arctic climate change. In the Arctic, sea salt is a major aerosol component in terms of mass concentration during winter…

Biden-Harris Administration Takes Major Steps to Protect Arctic Lands and Wildlife in Alaska

Department of the Interior cancels oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; proposes new protections in National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska The Biden-Harris administration today announced significant steps to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge)…

Sea ice is shrinking. These maps show by how much

It can be hard to visualize the magnitude of change underway on a warming planet. What does a hundred gigatons of ice look like? How many millions of Olympic swimming pools can you imagine? Our charts with this article aim…

Late summer heat wave avoids central Arctic

While the first half of August saw a rapid pace of Arctic sea ice loss, the pace slowed during the latter half of the month as mostly cooler conditions set in. Antarctic sea ice extent increased during the second half of the month….

Investigating Ice Load on Marine Structures in the Arctic Region

Sea ice in the Arctic and Subarctic regions poses significant risks to the safety of marine structures. With the growth of human activities in these regions, there is a need for reliable design and maintenance of structures against ice-induced forces….

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, National Science Foundation embark on Arctic Ocean mission

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB 20) crew and embarked researchers departed Kodiak, Saturday, for the cutter’s second mission this year in the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean. Healy’s next mission takes the cutter west, where the crew and…

Facts About the Arctic in September 2023

There’s lots of coverage specifically about assorted Arctic sea ice extent metrics over on the “2023 Minimum Extent” thread. However we’ll start the September open thread ball rolling with a couple of cross posted images. At the end of August…

New dawn for Arctic’s first people: the Inuit plan to reclaim their sea

The environment Inuit have lived in for millennia is changing fast. Canada’s government once ignored Indigenous knowledge of it but now they are jointly creating the Nunatsiavut conservation area. A plume of red erupts in the grey-blue waters and Martin…