Environment

Nasa Data Confirms Widespread Heatwave in Australia

New data from US space agency NASA has confirmed that temperatures across large parts of Australia were up to 15 degrees above average during the first eight days of 2013. The data, collected and beamed to earth from NASA's Aqua satellite, recorded temperatures across the nation from January 1 to January 8 and compared them with the first weeks of each year between 2005 to 2012.

It found that large swathes of Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory were 15 degrees above average in early 2013. Large parts of the rest of the country were also well above average. Only areas in WA's west and northwest, including parts of the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Perth, and relatively small areas of the central NT recorded below average temperatures.

Arctic Warming

A rare summer storm blasted the Arctic this week, beginning off the coast of Alaska, and moving over much of the Arctic Sea for several days before dissipating.

Nasa reports that Arctic storms such as this one can have a large impact on the sea ice, causing it to melt rapidly through many mechanisms, such as tearing off large swaths of ice and pushing them to warmer sites, churning the ice and making it slushier, or lifting warmer waters from the depths of the Arctic Ocean.

“It seems that this storm has detached a large chunk of ice from the main sea ice pack. This could lead to a more serious decay of the summertime ice cover than would have been the case otherwise, even perhaps leading to a new Arctic sea ice minimum,” said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist with NASA Goddard. “Decades ago, a storm of the same magnitude would have been less likely to have as large an impact on the sea ice, because at that time the ice cover was thicker and more expansive.”

 

Climate Change

Nearly all of Greenland's massive ice sheet suddenly started melting a bit this month, a freak event that surprised scientists.

Three satellites show unprecedented melting of the ice sheet that blankets the island, starting on July 8 and lasting four days to 12 July. Most of the thick ice remains. While some ice usually melts during the summer, what was unusual was that the melting happened in a flash and over a widespread area.

A wave of warm air washed over the Greenland ice sheet and melted it. The ice melt area went from 40 percent of the ice sheet to 97 percent in four days, according to NASA.