Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Sea ice provides an ecosystem for various polar species, particularly the polar bear, whose environment is being threatened as global warming causes the ice to melt more as the Earth's temperature gets warmer. Furthermore, the sea ice itself functions to help keep polar climates cool, since the ice exists in expansive enough amounts to maintain ...
The Antarctic sea ice cover is highly seasonal, with very little ice in the austral summer, expanding to an area roughly equal to that of Antarctica in winter.It peaks (~18 × 10^6 km 2) during September (comparable to the surface area of Pluto), which marks the end of austral winter, and retreats to a minimum (~3 × 10^6 km 2) in February.
Measurement of sea ice is important for safety of navigation and for monitoring the environment, particularly the climate. Sea ice extent interacts with large climate patterns such as the North Atlantic oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, to name just two, and influences climate in the rest of the globe.
This visual shows the Arctic sea ice change and the corresponding absorbed solar radiation change during June, July, and August from 2000 through 2014. The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum ...
Sea ice thickness spatial extent, and open water within sea ice packs can vary rapidly in response to weather and climate. [1] Sea ice concentration is measured by satellites, with the Special Sensor Microwave Imager / Sounder (SSMIS), and the European Space Agency's Cryosat-2 satellite to map the thickness and shape of the Earth's polar ice cover. [2]
Sea ice is a complex composite composed primarily of pure ice in various states of crystallization, but including air bubbles and pockets of brine.Understanding its growth processes is important for climate modellers and remote sensing specialists, since the composition and microstructural properties of the ice affect how it reflects or absorbs sunlight.
Fast ice (also called land-fast ice, landfast ice, and shore-fast ice) is sea ice or lake ice [1] that is "fastened" to the coastline, to the sea floor along shoals, or to grounded icebergs. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Fast ice may either grow in place from the sea water or by freezing pieces of drifting ice to the shore or other anchor sites.
Articles relating to sea ice, which covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sea ice . Subcategories