The issue of global warming and climate change is of continuous concern. Since the 1970s, it bas been shown that the pack-ice around the Arctic Ocean is thinning, the margin of permafrost is moving north and the vegetation in the high northern parts of the world is changing (the 'greening' of the Arctic). But are these changes the result of human activity or simply regular variations of the Earth's climate system? Over thousands of years, a continuous archive of iceberg and sea ice drift bas formed in the deep-sea sediments, revealing the place of the ice's origin and allowing a reconstruction of the surface currents and the climate of the past. However, the drift of floating ice from one place to another is not just a passive record of past ocean circulation. It actively influences and changes the surface ocean circulation, thus having a profound effect on climate change. Ice Drift, Ocean Circulation and Climate Change is the first book to focus on the interactions between ice, the ocean and the atmosphere and to describe how these three components of the climate system influence each other. It makes clear the positive contribution of paleoclimatology and paleoceanography and should be read by anyone concerned with global warming and climate change.

The World Ocean Circulation Experiment drove the development of estimates of the decadal scale time evolving general circulation that are dynamically and kinematically consistent. A long timescale, and a goal of estimation rather than prediction, preclude the use of meteorological methods called “data assimilation (DA).” Instead, “state estimation” methods are reviewed here and distinguished from DA. Results from the dynamically consistent family of solutions from the project Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean based upon least-squares Lagrange multipliers (adjoints) are used to discuss the determination of the dominant elements of the circulation in the period since 1992—which marked the beginning of the satellite altimetric record. Significant changes documented in the Arctic in recent decades now mandate consideration of the coupled ocean-cryospheric state.

The Second Edition of The Drift of Sea Ice presents the fundamental laws of sea ice drift which come from the material properties of sea ice and the basic laws of mechanics. The resulting system of equations is analysed for the general properties of sea ice drift, the free drift model and analytical models for ice drift in the presence of internal friction, and the construction of numerical ice drift models is detailed. This second edition of a much lauded work, unique on this topic in the English language, has been revised, updated and expanded with much new information and outlines recent results, in particular in relation to the climate problem, mathematical modelling and ice engineering applications. The current book presents the theory, observations, mathematical modelling techniques, and applications of sea ice drift science. The theory is presented from the beginning on a graduate student level, so that students and researchers coming from other fields such as physical oceanography, meteorology, physics, engineering, environmental sciences or geography can use the book as a source book or self-study material. First the drift ice material is presented ending with the concept of ‘ice state’ – the relevant properties in sea ice dynamics. Ice kinematics observations are widely presented with the mathematical analysis methods, and thereafter come drift ice rheology – to close the triangle material – kinematics – stress. The momentum equation of sea ice is derived in detail and its general properties are carefully analysed. Then follow two chapters on analytical models: free drift and drift in the presence of internal friction: These are very important tools in understanding the dynamical behaviour of sea ice. The last topical chapter is numerical models, which are the modern tool to solve ice dynamics problem in short term and long term problems. The closing chapter summarises sea ice dynamics applications and the need of sea ice dynamic knowledge and gives some final remarks on the future of this branch of science.

" ... as soon as one has traversed the greater part of the wild sea, one comes upon such a huge quantity of ice that nowhere in the whole world has the like been known." "This ice is of a wonderful nature. It lies at times quite still, as one would expect, with openings or large fjords in it; but sometimes its movement is so strong and rapid as to equal that of a ship running before the wind, and it drifts against the wind as often as with it." Kongespeilet - 1250 A.D. ("The Mirror of Kings") Modern societies require increasing amounts influence on the water mass and on the resulting of scientific information about the environment total environment of the region; therefore, cer tain of its characteristics will necessarily be in whieh they live and work. For the seas this information must describe the air above the sea, included.

The sea ice surrounding Antarctica has increased in extent and concentration from the late 1970s, when satellite-based measurements began, until 2015. Although this increasing trend is modest, it is surprising given the overall warming of the global climate and the region. Indeed, climate models, which incorporate our best understanding of the processes affecting the region, generally simulate a decrease in sea ice. Moreover, sea ice in the Arctic has exhibited pronounced declines over the same period, consistent with global climate model simulations. For these reasons, the behavior of Antarctic sea ice has presented a conundrum for global climate change science. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in January 2016, to bring together scientists with different sets of expertise and perspectives to further explore potential mechanisms driving the evolution of recent Antarctic sea ice variability and to discuss ways to advance understanding of Antarctic sea ice and its relationship to the broader ocean-climate system. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

As the Arctic perennial sea ice continues to disappear at an alarming rate, a full understanding of sea ice as a crucial global ecosystem, and the effects of its loss is vital for all those working with and studying global climate change. Building on the success of the previous edition, the second edition of Sea Ice, now much expanded and in full colour throughout, includes six completely new chapters with complete revisions of all the chapters included from the first edition. The Editors, Professor David Thomas and Dr Gerhard Dieckmann have once again drawn together an extremely impressive group of internationally respected contributing authors, ensuring a comprehensive worldwide coverage of this incredibly important topic. Sea Ice, second edition, is an essential purchase for oceanographers and marine scientists, environmental scientists, biologists, geochemists and geologists. All those involved in the study of global climate change will find this book to contain a wealth of important information. All libraries in universities and research establishments where these subjects are studied and taught will need multiple copies of this book on their shelves. truly multidisciplinary approach world leading authors and editors international in scope, covering both Arctic and Antarctic work of vital interest to all those involved in global warming and climate change research highly illustrated full colour book with colour images throughout

In this book the eminent authors analyse the ice cover variability in the Arctic Seas during the 20th and early 21st centuries. In the first two chapters, they show that multi-year changes of the sea-ice extent in the Arctic Seas were formed by linear trends and long-term (climatic) cycles lasting about 10, 20 and 60 years. The structure of temporal variability of the western region (Greenland – Kara) differs significantly from the eastern region seas (Laptev and Chukchi). In the latter region, unlike the former area, relatively short-period cycles (up to 10 years) predominate. The linear trends can be related to a super-secular cycle of climatic changes over about 200 years. The most significant of these cycles, lasting 60 years, is most pronounced in the western region seas.

The polar oceans interact with both sea ice, formed in situ at the ocean surface, and land ice, flowing under gravity from the land onto the ocean surface. This ice–ocean interaction has profound consequences for the ocean and climate in a number of ways: a change in ocean surface albedo and surface energy balance where there is ice cover compared with open ocean, a change in global sea level when land ice flows into the ocean, and a transformation of water masses through melting or freezing of ice which subsequently influences the global conveyor belt. Another type of ice–ocean interaction, less well understood, is that between marine permafrost at the seafloor and the overlying ocean waters. Collectively, we refer to sea ice, land ice, and marine permafrost as the marine cryosphere. In this chapter, we review current understanding of the interaction of the marine cryosphere with the global ocean and discuss emerging technologies to improve observations and numerical modeling of these interactions. Projections for the state of the marine cryosphere into the current century and beyond are reviewed.

Lorsqu'il n'est pas en notre pouvoir de discerner les plus vraies opinions, nous devons suivre les plus pro babies.-Rene Descartes When, in the early 1960's I undertook to covered, due to limitations imposed by a single study Arctic Ocean deep-sea cores, I did not volume. anticipate that 10 years later the climatic history Although not comprehensive, it is hoped that of the north polar basin would be still a matter of this book will provide an insight into the current debate. Although much new data have accumu status of Arctic research and will also serve as a lated in various fields of Arct.

Observations made during the 1990s and 2000s indicate that the Arctic physical environment and associated ecosystem are undergoing remarkable changes. The observed reduction in Arctic sea ice extent is arguably the strongest, most powerful visual symbol of climate change. The Arctic Ocean is changing as well. Here we discuss, from an observational point of view, the present understanding of the circulation, water masses, and stratification of the Arctic Ocean, highlighting the changes that have taken place during the past few decades. Many of these ocean signals evolve rapidly, making it essential that the state of the Arctic/Subarctic is observed continually, using all the recent advances that have been made in high-latitude monitoring and in Earth System understanding. Taking recent investigations of the Arctic atmosphere and sea ice as guides, we deem it likely that signatures of anthropogenic climate change in the Arctic/Subarctic Seas will begin to emerge above the high level of natural variability within the next decade.