4 months ago
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The heat in December 2023 was felt most strongly in the Arctic, as illustrated by the NASA image below, showing anomalies above 1951-1980 as high as 9.9°C.
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The image below further illustrates heat striking the northern latitudes in 2023, showing that the temperature anomaly in 2023 was 2.19°C above 1880-1920 in between 24°North and the North Pole.
The danger is that ocean heat could abruptly be pushed from the North Atlantic into the Arctic Ocean, temporarily raising temperatures at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, as discussed in earlier posts such as this one.
The image below illustrates the crossing of two tipping points, i.e. the Latent Heat Tipping Point and the Seafloor Methane Tipping Point, threatening to cause rapid destabilization of methane hydrates at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and lead to explosive eruptions of methane, as its volume increases 160 to 180-fold when leaving the hydrates.
The image below illustrates the crossing of two tipping points, i.e. the Latent Heat Tipping Point and the Seafloor Methane Tipping Point, threatening to cause rapid destabilization of methane hydrates at the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean and lead to explosive eruptions of methane, as its volume increases 160 to 180-fold when leaving the hydrates.
The image is an update of the image below, from a 2023 post and added here for reference purposes.
The danger is that, as the latent heat buffer disappears, incoming ocean heat with no longer be consumed by sea ice, but will instead heat up sediments at the seafloor of the Arctic ocean.
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| Latent heat loss, feedback #14 on the Feedbacks page |
Ominously, sea surface temperatures (60°South-60°North) are on the rise in 2024, as illustrated by the image below.
Climate Emergency Declaration
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 the Climate Emergency Declaration group.
Links
• Sea surface temperature at record high
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2023/03/sea-surface-temperature-at-record-high.html
• 2024 looks to be worse than 2023
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-looks-to-be-worse-than-2023.html
• Climate Reanalyzer - Daily sea surface temperatures
https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily
• NOAA - Climate Prediction Center - ENSO: Recent Evolution, Current Status and Predictions
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf
• Cold freshwater lid on North Atlantic
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/cold-freshwater-lid-on-north-atlantic.html
• Albedo, latent heat, insolation and more
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/albedo.html
• Latent Heat
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/latent-heat.html
• The Threat of Global Warming causing Near-Term Human Extinction
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/threat.html
• Feedbacks
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/albedo.html
• Latent Heat
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/latent-heat.html
• The Threat of Global Warming causing Near-Term Human Extinction
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/threat.html
• Feedbacks
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extinction.html
• Climate Plan
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html
• Climate Emergency Declaration
https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climate-emergency-declaration.html
