EARTH SCIENCE JOURNAL Sea ice

Have you ever wondered? Why are there so many terms for ice? Why can you walk on the North Pole? Will I be able to walk on ice in the future? Why should I care about such a cold place? How does climate in one region of the world effect climate in another? What can I do to help the polar bears? Platlet ice: Lauren Fields at

What is sea ice and how is it different than other types of ice? Sea ice is frozen ocean water Ice sheets, glaciers, ice shelves, and ice bergs all start on land Photo credit (sea ice and ice shelf): Photo credit (iceberg): done/ done/ Photo credit (glacier): "Perito Moreno Glacier Patagonia Argentina Luca Galuzzi 2005" by I, Luca Galuzzi. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons - ntina_Luca_Galuzzi_2005.JPG#/media/File:Perito_Moreno_Glacier_Patagonia_Arg entina_Luca_Galuzzi_2005.JPG

Different types of ice? Ice shelf – an ice sheet that extends over water Photo credit (ice shelf): shelves.html Photo credit (iceberg): Photo credit (glacier): Ice sheets – are permanent expanses of ice over land Glaciers – ice sheets moving under their own weight Iceberg – a piece of an ice shelf or glacier that has fallen off and is free at sea

Which contributes to sea level rise when it melts? Sea ice Photo credit (sea ice): eu.org/research/Sea_ice_in_the_Arctic_does_not_recover.shtml Photo credit (glacier): One of the forms of land ice Why? OR When land ice melts, water moves from on land to into the ocean, whereas sea ice is water that came from the ocean and froze.

Where are these massive ice formations? – Polar regions land no land, only ice l

How does sea ice form? Depends on how rough the waters are – Many terms, such as frazil and nila, to describe ice formation – See: But it needs to be cold! Climate change will reduce the extent of sea ice – Expect big reductions in sea ice by 2100!

Who cares about sea ice? Photo credit: Dick & Val Beck/Polar Bears International Polar bears need sea ice to make a platform they can walk on and hunt from.

Who cares about sea ice? Compare ecosystems with and without sea ice With Without From Post et al. 2013:

How does sea ice in the Arctic effect climate in other areas? To find out consider a very simple climate model of your immediate area YOU ICE CUBE ADVECTION

How does sea ice in the Arctic effect climate in other areas? To find out consider a very simple climate model of your immediate area YOU, now COLD ICE CUBE ADVECTION

How does sea ice in the Arctic effect climate in other areas? Now imagine advection between the grid cells of a global climate model – Along with other climate phenomena – such as evaporation, heat exchange with planet surface, wind, precipitation, vegetation-atmospheric interactions)

How does sea ice in the Arctic effect climate in other areas? Using a climate model, and changing the initial conditions of sea ice extent, scientists found that sea ice loss would effect extreme climate: Given a set of numbers, the value below which a given percentage of observations fall. For example, if we had the following set of numbers {4, 7, 3, 9, 3} the 60th percentile would be 4, because 3/5 x 100% = 60% of the set are equal to or less than 4.

How does sea ice in the Arctic effect climate in other areas? Using a climate model, and changing the initial conditions of sea ice extent, scientists found that sea ice loss would effect extreme climate:

How does sea ice in the Arctic effect climate in other areas? Using a climate model, and changing the initial conditions of sea ice extent, scientists found that sea ice loss would effect extreme climate:

What can you do? Reduce fossil fuel consumption – How great are the Paris agreements to limit climate change to 2 o C?! – To do this: save energy, stay local or drive a car less, and consume less Think global but act local: what you do can effect the planet Understand the science so you can explain it to others

Jeopardy Ocean water that freezes What is sea ice? Photo credit: ping-news/ _ecig-taxation-could-be- tip-of-the-iceberg.html

Jeopardy Does not contribute to sea level rise What is sea ice? Photo credit: erg_5_1997_08_07.jpg

Jeopardy Allows polar bears and people to walk on the North Pole What is sea ice? Watch the video to see the arch collapse:

Jeopardy Location of sea ice What are polar regions? Photo credit:

Jeopardy Trend in sea ice by 2100 What is decreasing? Photo credit: iceberg-looks-like-giant-humbug.html

Jeopardy (bonus) Percent of days when the maximum temperature is greater than the 90 th percentile of historic weather. What are extreme warm days? Photo credit: iceberg-looks-like-giant-humbug.html