News tagged with arctic ocean

Amasia: As next supercontinent forms, Arctic Ocean, Caribbean will vanish first

(PhysOrg.com) -- Geologists at Yale University have proposed a new theory to describe the formation of supercontinents, the epic process by which Earth’s major continental blocks combine into a single ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (14) | comments 10 | with audio podcast

CU-Boulder-led team to assess decline of Arctic sea ice in Alaska's Beaufort Sea

(PhysOrg.com) -- A national research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder is embarking on a two-year, multi-pronged effort to better understand the impacts of environmental factors associated with ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Federal report: Arctic much worse since 2006

(AP) -- Federal officials say the Arctic region has changed dramatically in the past five years - for the worse.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 01, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 15

How Arctic microbes respond to a warming world

From the North Pole to the Arctic Ocean, the frozen soils within this region keep an estimated 1,672 billion metric tons of carbon out of the Earth's atmosphere. This sequestered carbon is more than 250 times ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 06, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Young and thin instead of old and bulky: Researchers report on changes in Arctic sea ice

In the central Arctic the proportion of old, thick sea ice has declined significantly. Instead, the ice cover now largely consists of thin, one-year-old floes. This is one of the results that scientists of the Alfred Wegener ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 06, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Arctic sea ice continues decline, hits 2nd-lowest level

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last month the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean declined to the second-lowest extent on record. Satellite data from NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 05, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (15) | comments 44 | with audio podcast

Air quality has continued to improve in Finnish Lapland

Long-term observations made by the Finnish Meteorological Institute at the Pallas Atmospheric Research Station indicate a positive trend in the quality of air in Lapland during the past 10-20 years. This favorable trend may ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 21, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Arctic sea ice reaches minimum 2011 extent, making it second lowest in satellite record

The blanket of sea ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2011, the second lowest recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979, according to the University ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Sep 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Arctic shipping routes open

Satellite measurements show we are heading for another year of below-average ice cover in the Arctic. As sea ice melts during the summer months, two major shipping routes have opened in the Arctic Ocean.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 26, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Orange goo on Alaska shore was fungal spores

(AP) -- An orange-colored goo that streaked the shore of a remote Alaska village turned out to be fungal spores, not millions of microscopic eggs as indicated by preliminary analysis, scientists said Thursday.

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 19, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

US opens ways for Shell Arctic Ocean drilling

US officials have granted oil giant Shell conditional approval to begin drilling exploration wells in the Arctic Ocean from next year, a move swiftly slammed by conservationists as "inexcusable".

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 05, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (14) | comments 10

Large variations in Arctic sea ice

For the last 10,000 years, summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has been far from constant. For several thousand years, there was much less sea ice in The Arctic Ocean – probably less than half of current ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Aug 04, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Official: Suspension unrelated to polar bear paper

(AP) -- The recent suspension of Alaska wildlife biologist Charles Monnett is unrelated both to an article that he wrote about presumably drowned Arctic polar bears and to his scientific work, a federal official said Friday.

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 30, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Arctic scientist under investigation

(AP) -- A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jul 28, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 12

Russia bids to expand Arctic border to seek gas

Russia will submit a claim to the United Nations to expand its Arctic borders, a top official said Wednesday, as scientists embarked on a new expedition to prove its ownership of energy-rich territory.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 06, 2011 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest, and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean. Alternatively, the Arctic Ocean can be seen as the northernmost lobe of the all-encompassing World Ocean.

Almost completely surrounded by Eurasia and North America, the Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year (and almost completely in winter). The Arctic Ocean's temperature and salinity vary seasonally as the ice cover melts and freezes; its salinity is the lowest on average of the five major oceans, due to low evaporation, heavy freshwater inflow from rivers and streams, and limited connection and outflow to surrounding oceanic waters with higher salinities. The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%. The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) use satellite data to provide a daily record of Arctic sea ice cover and the rate of melting compared to an average period and specific past years.

For more information about Arctic Ocean, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.