When Will All the Ice in the Arctic be Gone? When will all the ice in the Arctic be gone? This is a question often asked of sea-ice researchers by the media, the general public and policy makers-and no wonder. Several recent reports have detailed the accelerated loss of summer sea-ice cover in the Arctic. In addition, the observed ice loss is generally happening faster than climate models have forecasted. The question gets even more complicated because we see a large spread in climate model simulations, with ice-free September conditions already happening in 2020 in some simulations but not until well beyond 2100 in others. So determining the answer is tricky. Is this, however, the correct question to be asking in the first place? It assumes sea-ice loss is a function of time, but is that the case? Scientific American

Arctic Ocean Could Have no September Sea Ice if Global Average Temperatures Increase by 2 Degrees. Arctic sea ice could disappear completely through September each summer if average global temperatures increase by as little as 2 degrees, according to a new study by the University of Cincinnati. The study by an international team of researchers was published in Nature Communications. "The target is the sensitivity of sea ice to temperature," said Won Chang, a study co-author and UC assistant professor of mathematics. Phys.org

Lightning Struck Near the North Pole 48 Times on Saturday, as Rapid Arctic Warming Continues. On Saturday, 48 lightning discharges were detected within 300 miles of the North Pole, according to the National Weather Service and Vaisala, a private company that operates a worldwide lightning detection network. The bolts - which were the product of towering storm clouds that are more typically seen at lower latitudes - were first noticed by sharp-eyed forecasters at the NWS office in Fairbanks, Alaska. The thunderstorms at the top of the world struck in the midst of an extreme summer that has featured record-low sea ice levels and much-above-average temperatures across much of the Arctic Ocean, including at the pole itself. The Washington Post

 

Strathclyde Mathematician Joins Arctic Climate Change Venture. A Mathematics researcher at the University of Strathclyde has joined a scientific venture to the Arctic Ocean which is to understand the behavior of tiny organisms that are key to the food chain. Dr Aidan Hunter is part of the crew seeking to understand the impacts of climate change on marine life in the Arctic. The scientists are conducting sampling and a number of experiments for four projects that are part of the £20 million Changing Arctic Ocean scientific research program. Dr Hunter is a member of the DIAPOD team, which is studying zooplankton - small crustaceans the size of a rice grain - that are the main source of food for fish and other species. University of Strathclyde Glasgow