The United States is bracing for a weekend of extremely hot weather, with major cities including New York and Washington expecting temperatures close to or exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
Environment
Jul 20, 2019
3
53
In recent years, the idea of life on other planets has become less far-fetched. NASA announced June 27 that it will send a vehicle to Saturn's icy moon Titan, a celestial body known to harbor surface lakes of methane and ...
Space Exploration
Jul 12, 2019
0
1
Research published in this week's issue of Nature Communications reveals a considerable chance for an ice-free Arctic Ocean at global warming limits stipulated in the Paris Agreement. Scientists from South Korea, Australia ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 09, 2019
8
171
Images of vanishing Arctic ice and mountain glaciers are jarring, but their potential contributions to sea level rise are no match for Antarctica's, even if receding southern ice is less eye-catching. Now, a study says that ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 08, 2019
20
2213
How did events like the Black Death plague impact the economy of Medieval Europe? Particles of lead trapped deep in Arctic ice can tell us.
Environment
Jul 08, 2019
1
271
Temperatures in Alaska's largest city Anchorage have soared to a sweltering all-time record of 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 centigrade) as a heat wave grips the US state which straddles the Arctic Circle.
Environment
Jul 05, 2019
1
2
Cranes hoist cargo onto the deck, power tools scream out and workers bustle through the maze of passageways inside the German icebreaker RV Polarstern, preparations for a yearlong voyage that organizers say is unprecedented ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 03, 2019
3
0
For years, scientists have pointed to warming permafrost in the Arctic tundra as a source for increased carbon in the atmosphere; as this soil warms, it releases greenhouse gases that have long been trapped in frozen ground.
Environment
Jul 03, 2019
0
1
The sunset had an orange glow and so does the new heat alert level for Paris.
Environment
Jun 24, 2019
3
0
An emaciated polar bear seen roaming around an industrial city in Russia far south of its normal sea ice hunting grounds is being transported to a zoo for examination and treatment.
Ecology
Jun 21, 2019
0
0
The Arctic (pronounced /ˈɑrktɪk/ or /ˈɑrtɪk/) is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctic region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean (which overlies the North Pole) and parts of Canada, Greenland (a territory of Denmark), Russia, the United States (Alaska), Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The word Arctic comes from the Greek αρκτικός (arktikos), "near the Bear, arctic, northern" and that from the word άρκτος (arktos), which means bear. The name refers either to the constellation Ursa Major, the "Great Bear", which is prominent in the northern portion of the celestial sphere, or to the constellation Ursa Minor, the "Little Bear", which contains Polaris, the Pole Star, also known as the North Star.[citation needed]
The Arctic region can be defined as the area north of the Arctic Circle (66° 33’N), which is the approximate limit of the midnight sun and the polar night. Alternatively, it can be defined as the region where the average temperature for the warmest month (July) is below 10 °C (50 °F); the northernmost tree line roughly follows the isotherm at the boundary of this region. Socially and politically, the Arctic region includes the northern territories of the eight Arctic states, including Sapmi, although by natural science definitions much of this territory is considered subarctic.
The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean (which is sometimes considered to be a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean) surrounded by treeless permafrost. In recent years the extent of the sea ice has declined. Life in the Arctic includes organisms living in the ice, zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants, and human societies.
The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth's ecosystems. The cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions.
Due to the poleward migration of the planet's isotherms (about 35 miles per decade during the past 30 years as a consequence of global warming), the Arctic region (as defined by tree line and temperature) is currently shrinking. Perhaps the most spectacular result of Arctic shrinkage is sea ice loss. There is a large variance in predictions of Arctic sea ice loss, with models showing near-complete to complete loss in September from 2040 to some time well beyond 2100. About half of the analyzed models show near-complete to complete sea ice loss in September by the year 2100.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
