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Melting sea ice increases Arctic precipitation, complicates climate predictions
phys.org ^ | 12/21/2015

Posted on 12/22/2015 4:03:05 PM PST by BenLurkin

There is a growing consensus among scientists that a decrease in sea ice would increase Arctic precipitation because of increased evaporation. Direct measurement of precipitation is difficult in the Arctic because of its cold, windy environments, so the quantitative link between precipitation and sea ice is poorly understood.

In their study, the Dartmouth-led team quantified that link by measuring the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of precipitation from 1990 to 2012 at six sites across the Arctic. They then used these empirically established sensitivities of precipitation isotopes to sea ice change to project future precipitation changes and to evaluate impacts of these changes on the energy balance.

...

They found that for a sea ice extent decrease of 100,000 km2 - or 38,610 square miles-the percentage of Arctic sourced moisture increases by 18.2 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively, in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland Sea regions. This corresponds to increases of 10.9 percent and 2.7 percent per degree Celsius of Arctic warming, respectively.

The researchers reached no conclusion on whether the increased precipitation will fall as snow or rain. If it falls as snow, it could potentially increase glacial mass and the number of days of high land surface reflectivity, thus having a cooling effect. But if the increased precipitation falls as rain, it would cause earlier spring melt and/or later onset of autumn snow coverage, a longer low reflectivity period and additional warming.

(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...


TOPICS: Weather
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1 posted on 12/22/2015 4:03:05 PM PST by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

This weather stuff is hard! They knew that predicting next week was tough, but they thought predicting the far future would be easy. I can smell their disappointment.


2 posted on 12/22/2015 4:06:12 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (I don't know what Claire Wolfe is thinking but I know what I am thinking.)
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To: BenLurkin

Only one problem, the ice ain’t melting.


3 posted on 12/22/2015 4:06:33 PM PST by OneVike (I'm just a Christian waiting for a ride home)
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To: BenLurkin

Could get warmer, but on the other hand it could get cooler, - not really sure, but the sky is falling!


4 posted on 12/22/2015 4:06:46 PM PST by DaveyB (Live free or die!)
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To: BenLurkin

What I want to ask any climate scientist. What is your control in your studies?


5 posted on 12/22/2015 4:09:23 PM PST by LukeL
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To: BenLurkin

I thought the science was settled.


6 posted on 12/22/2015 4:11:37 PM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Moonman62

well.... it was an remains settled....sort of

.it had to be settled before they let us know what was “in it”...


7 posted on 12/22/2015 4:13:23 PM PST by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><> GO CRUZ!!!!)
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To: BenLurkin

So, what they’re saying is that the best way to eliminate global warming is to buy a gun?


8 posted on 12/22/2015 4:13:37 PM PST by IncPen (Not one single patriot in Washington, DC.)
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To: BenLurkin
Haven’t you heard? CO2 causes cooling now. Still climate change, of course - just worse now . . .
9 posted on 12/22/2015 4:14:30 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: BenLurkin

” . . . complicates climate predictions.”

That’s the whole point, warmist morons - the climate system is so gloriously complex, influenced by factors as small as cosmic rays and as large as the earth’s albedo, with scores of other factors intermediate in scale that the assumption that one can come up with a viable computer model, at least at this point in time, is the height of human hubris.


10 posted on 12/22/2015 4:19:57 PM PST by Stosh
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To: BenLurkin

” so the quantitative link between precipitation and sea ice is poorly understood.”

None the less, western nations should fork over a trillion a year to African dictators’ Swiss bank accounts, you know, just in case.


11 posted on 12/22/2015 4:20:08 PM PST by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: BenLurkin
"Direct measurement of precipitation is difficult in the Arctic because of its cold, windy environments, so the quantitative link between precipitation and sea ice is poorly understood totally unknown."

Truth corrected.

12 posted on 12/22/2015 4:26:50 PM PST by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason and rule of law. Prepare!)
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To: Moonman62

The science is settled. It’s just the weatherliars won’t show us the unmolested data because it will give Obama and the UN a nipple cramp.


13 posted on 12/22/2015 4:27:02 PM PST by West Texas Chuck (OBAMA: Fundamentally Twerking America)
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To: BenLurkin

Chaos theory tells us that if you don’t know the precise value of every single variable in a system at a given moment your predictions will diverge from reality by an ever-increasing amount.

The number of variables involved in climate is, for all practical purposes, infinite.

Any questions?


14 posted on 12/22/2015 4:28:11 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum ("We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of citizens." -- Mark Levin)
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To: BenLurkin

I’m not scared a dyin’ and I, don’t really care
If it’s peace you find in dyin’ well then, let the time be near
If it’s peace you find in dyin’ and if dyin’ time is near
Just bundle up my coffin ‘cause it’s, cold way down there
I hear that it’s, cold way down there, yeah
Crazy cold way down there.


15 posted on 12/22/2015 4:29:18 PM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: BenLurkin

So melted ice is why Oklahoma is so humid and receives ungodly amounts of rain?

Right....


16 posted on 12/22/2015 4:29:44 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway - "Enjoy Yourself" ala Louis Prima)
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To: BenLurkin

I’m really getting sick of the word, consensus..


17 posted on 12/22/2015 4:29:52 PM PST by cardinal4 (Certified Islamophobe)
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To: ClearCase_guy
'Zactly.

That whole Prediction of the Future Thing is a tough nut to crack!

18 posted on 12/22/2015 4:30:17 PM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: Vendome

Okla.’s problem with the weather is caused by earthquakes caused by fracking.


19 posted on 12/22/2015 4:31:14 PM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: IncPen
"So, what they’re saying is that the best way to eliminate global warming is to buy a gun? "

That would be the best way to fix the Global Warminista Problem...

20 posted on 12/22/2015 4:33:27 PM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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