Ben Etherington

skepttv:

Sea Height/Fresh Water Increasing In Arctic Ocean (1995-2010)

ESA satellites show that a large dome of fresh water has been building up in the Arctic Ocean over the last 15 years. A change in wind direction could cause the water to spill into the north Atlantic, cooling Europe.

The results are remarkable: since 2002, the sea surface in the studied area has risen by about 15 cm, and the volume of fresh water has increased by some 8000 cubic km — around 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic Ocean.

Researchers from the center for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) at University College London and the UK’s National Oceanography center used data from ESA’s ERS-2 and Envisat satellites to measure sea-surface height over the western Arctic from 1995 to 2010.

The results were published January 22, 2012 in the online version of the scientific journal, Nature Geoscience.

The scientists conclude that the dome could be a result of strong Arctic winds accelerating a large ocean circulation known as the Beaufort Gyre, causing the sea surface to bulge.

A change in the direction of the wind would cause the fresh water to spill into the rest of the Arctic Ocean and even reach the north Atlantic.

This could slow a key ocean current, stemming from the Gulf Stream, and subsequently cool Europe.

ESA will continue to monitor the Arctic with the upcoming Sentinel series of Earth-observing satellites for Europe’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme.

Later this year, the first results of seasonal changes in sea-ice thickness from data acquired by ESA’s CryoSat-2 satellite will be presented.

credit: CPOM/UCL/ESA/Planetary Visions

source: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMD7FNXDXG_index_0.html

(Source: youtube.com)