animation only available on the source's site
"In the western Arctic, the Beaufort Gyre is driven by a permanent anti-cyclonic wind circulation. It drives the water, forcing it to pile up in the centre of gyre, and this domes the sea surface," explained lead author Dr Katharine Giles from the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at University College London.
I think kudos are due for the ESA (European Space Agency) for the data it managed to obtain with it's Polar observation satellite, the Cryosat-2:
"What we seen occurring is precisely what the climate models had predicted," said Dr Giles.
"When you have clockwise rotation - the fresh water is stored. If the wind goes the other way - and that has happened in the past - then the fresh water can be pushed to the margins of the Arctic Ocean.
"If the spin-up starts to spin down, the fresh water could be released. It could go to the rest of the Arctic Ocean or even leave the Arctic Ocean."
If the fresh water were to enter the North Atlantic in large volumes, the concern would be that it might disturb the currents that have such a great influence on European weather patterns. These currents draw warm waters up from the tropics, maintaining milder temperatures in winter than would ordinarily be expected at northern European latitudes.
Well, there is always something to worry about here... those ice caps kept this eventuality contained I suppose.
We live on a planet that's 70% water... is there any doubt that water would be the most vital thing to understand if we want to predict climate effects.
Thanks for reading!
www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)
edit on 24-1-2012 by Maxmars because: (no reason given)
