Loss in albedo as a result of loss in sea ice is only one out of many feedbacks that come with rising temperatures. As warmer water flows into the Arctic Ocean, Arctic sea ice loses volume, which diminishes its capacity to act as a buffer that consumes ocean heat entering the Arctic Ocean from the North Atlantic. This means that a lot of incoming ocean heat can no longer be consumed by melting the sea ice from below, and the heat will therefore contribute to higher temperatures of the water of the Arctic Ocean.
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| [ Arctic sea ice volume ] |
The image on the right shows Arctic sea ice volume up to February 3, 2025. Arctic sea ice volume in 2024 and 2025 has been much lower than in previous years. More incoming heat therefore threatens to reach the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and destabilize methane hydrates contained in sediments at the seafloor, resulting in eruptions of huge amounts of methane, as illustrated by the above image.
As said, rising temperatures come with many feedbacks, and they can contribute strongly to the further acceleration of the temperature rise. Another feedback is more water vapor ending up in the atmosphere, as illustrated by the image below.
The above image shows the average daily precipitable water anomaly on February 2, 2025. More water vapor is another self-reinforcing feedback, since water vapor is a potent greenhouse gas that further accelerates the temperature rise.
The situation is dire and the precautionary principle calls for rapid, comprehensive and effective action to reduce the damage and to improve the situation, as described in this 2022 post, where needed in combination with a Climate Emergency Declaration, as discussed at this group.
Links
• Kevin Pluck – seaice.visuals.earth
https://seaice.visuals.earth
• NSIDC – What is the difference between sea ice area and extent?
• Danish Meteorological Institute – Arctic sea ice volume and thickness
https://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icethickness/thk.uk.php
• Albedo, latent heat, insolation and more
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/albedo.html
• Feedbacks
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html
• Transforming Society
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/transforming-society.html
• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html
• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html