Northwest Passage becomes a passage again

When Roald Amundsen first sailed the infamous Northwest Passage in the first years of the 20th century, he actually took a more circuitous route, heading south in a search for open water.

He also discovered why previous attempts to negotiate the passage ended in failure and disaster, and was compelled to overwinter on one of the many icy islands in the passage. Had he been able to wait 100 years or so, he would have had a breeze of a time. The Amundsen Northwest Passage has been passable for about a month this summer, and the true Northwest Passage, a more northerly route is about to be ice-free for the second year in a row, albeit for a short Arctic summer.

Last September, many scientists were concerned when the Arctic ice pack shrunk to its smallest size since satellite measurements began almost 30 years ago. This year the ice has already claimed the title of second smallest ice pack with three weeks of its melting season left to go.

Usually at this point in the season he melting rate would begin to slow, says Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Data Center in Boulder Colorado. Instead it sped up. Researchers are trying to create new models to reflect how thin the ice has really become. According to a UK Guardian article:

“[T]he most important of these computer studies of ice cover was carried out a few months ago by Professor Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Using U.S. Navy supercomputers, his team produced a forecast which indicated that by 2013 there will be no ice in the Arctic—other than a few outcrops on islands near Greenland and Canada—between mid-July and mid-September.

Arctic Ice on the Verge of Another All-Time Low, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMCKX0SAKF_index_0.html#subhead1

As Arctic Sea Ice Melts, Experts Expect A New Low, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/science/earth/28seaice.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Methane: a Scientific Journey from Obscurity to Climate Super Stardom, http://www.giss.nasa.gov/

SOURCE: R&D Daily; Wired Magazine

R&D Daily
Advantage Business Media

Rockaway, NJ, 07866