In just 15 years, the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free in summer, study says - CBS News
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/arctic-ocean-climate-change-ice-free-15-years/
Just 15 years from now, the Arctic Ocean may be functionally ice-free for part of the year, a new study has found. Research published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change projects that due to vanishing sea ice, the Arctic may start seeing an ice-free period each year as early as 2035.
"This should be of huge concern to Arctic communities and climate scientists," the study says.
It's one of the most aggressive timelines for this threshold to be reached and, if correct, is one of the more direct signs that humans are warming the Earth's climate at an even more dramatic pace than expected.
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The team attributes the model's improved ability to simulate the Arctic climate partly to a better ability to duplicate melt ponds on sea ice. The more melt ponds form on top of ice, the darker the surface of the ice becomes, and in turn, more heat is absorbed. That accelerates Arctic warming and sea ice melt.
The team notes that their findings of an ice-free Arctic, and how the ice-free conditions developed during the last interglacial, may unravel the long-standing puzzle of why the Arctic was able to get so warm 125,000 years ago, and also supports a fast retreat of future Arctic summer sea ice.
While climate scientists agree the retreat will be fast, some are skeptical of the accelerated 2035 forecast. That's because the HadGEM3 climate model simulates more warming than the vast majority of other recently upgraded models.
Sea-ice-free Arctic during the Last Interglacial supports fast future loss
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-0865-2
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