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Kevin McKinney

Interesting work! Hadn't really thought about the extent to which a river like the Mackenzie transports warmth to the AO. But the immediate headwaters are 1,700 km south (Great Slave Lake) and the farthest reaches of the watershed, over 4,000 (Thutade Lake, at roughly 56 N.) Yearly discharge is supposed to be about 325 km e3.

idunno

Via the sidebar, slate has some cool graphics...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/03/06/arctic_sea_ice_warm_rivers_help_accelerate_melting.html

Some thoughts...

1. Increased open water in the Arctic Autumn is increasing atmospheric humidity; linked to increased Autumn NH snowfall; linked to increased Spring and Summer river flow?

2. The amount of water transported by ocean currents dwarfs river flow, see...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sverdrup

IIRC, the flow through the Fram Strait alone is estimated at around 6 Sv = 6x all total global riverflow.

OTOH, this Atlantic water is saline, enters the Arctic at depth, and stays submerged. Heated river water s doubly buoyant, due to both heat and salinity.

3. Is river water anything to do with this strange arrival of open water in ESAS?

http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?subset=Arctic_r04c05.2014065.terra

What is that?

http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?mosaic=Arctic.2014065.terra.4km

Wipneus
3. Is river water anything to do with this strange arrival of open water in ESAS?

http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?subset=Arctic_r04c05.2014065.terra

idunno, it is Laptev Sea. West, with the Severnaya Zemlya islands on the lower left.

See https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,382.msg21111.html#msg21111 how the open water formed. It is wind, not river warmth.

As it happens, there is a clear first Landsat 8 image of the area. I will post it in the Image-of-the-day thread on the forum.

Chris Reynolds

Thanks Neven,

Wipneus

PIOMAS update:
Latest value: 2014-2-28 20.86


I have updated my graphics at ArctischePinguin for the latest data.

Monthly DataMonthly data
Daily AnomaliesDaily Anomalies
Daily data Daily data

Hubert Bułgajewski

Selected satellite images of the Arctic:
http://arcticicesea.blogspot.com/2014/03/arktyka-z-bliska-tuz-przed-topnieniem.html

PIOMAS: catching up. It will be record this year. And if not, then in the next.

iceman

"Fast ice holding the river back actually increases the effect the river has on sea ice retreat."
That could be a (minor) factor in the negative one-year autocorrelation that appears still to be in effect.

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