A Closer Look at Ice Impacts of a Rare Arctic Summer Storm
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The National Snow and Ice Data Center has posted on what it calls “a most interesting Arctic summer,” and that is certainly the case, given this week’s powerful and rare summer storm, which is churning the Arctic Ocean’s already thin and reduced sea ice cover.

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Here’s Chapman’s look at this summer’s powerful Arctic storm and its impact on sea ice:

I’ve been keeping an eye on this storm for a variety of reasons. First, it’s a rare event. This storm is intense for any time of year, but especially for summer, when the weather is normally fairly benign in the Arctic. This storm formed and intensified near the Beaufort Sea and moved to the central Arctic Ocean where it will slowly lose its intensity over the next several days. Ordinarily, the Beaufort Sea and the Arctic Ocean are dominated by high pressure, so having a low pressure system form and intensify here is quite uncommon. Although, it has been happening with more frequency over the past few decades as pressures have dropped significantly in the Arctic during this time and are projected to drop even more during the next century by the global climate models.

An Australian medical team and government jet were sent to Antarctica Wednesday to assist in the rescue of an expeditioner from the United States' McMurdo Station base.

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The Australian Antarctic Division, a branch of the government's environment department, said the US National Science Foundation had requested assistance in an emergency mission, the details of which were not immediately clear.

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Further details were expected to be released later by US authorities.