Arctic News

[ombugge]

The Arctic is hotting up in more ways than one:

Tailor-made for Norway: New NOMADS air defence system now tested in the Arctic...

The NOMADS is based on technology from NASAMS, the system that has won acclamation for its high efficiency against Russian missiles launched against Ukraine. It includes a radar, operational room and a launcher system with missile, all of it mounted on an armored combat support vehicle.

[ombugge]

Not photoshopped or AI generated (I believe):

Bonn to Baku – cryosphere in crisis – where’s the hope for the world’s icy...

Last month was actually 1.52°C above the estimated May average for the 1850-1900 pre-industrial reference period.
Yes, you read right. More than 1.5°C, the dreaded threshold the scientists tell us we have to keep below to avert the worst catastrophic impacts of climate warming.
Admittedly, the goals set in the Paris Agreement on climate change refer to long-term temperature increases over decades, not over one to five years. So those temperatures would have to continue for us to be formally in breach of that 1.5°C limit. But we are moving fast in that direction. The average temperature for the past 12 months (June 2023 – May 2024), was also the highest on record, at a staggering 1.63°C above the pre-industrial average.

WMO acknowledges cryosphere crisis
In a reflection of growing international concern about melting ice, snow and permafrost, the World Meteorological Organization WMO, has announced that it will ramp up activities to strengthen monitoring, advocacy and collaboration on the cryosphere.

High time, I hear you Iceblog readers comment.
“Urgent action to mitigate climate change is needed to avoid the most devastating outcomes for the cryosphere. Every tenth of a degree of warming that is mitigated will limit the cryosphere loss and subsequent related impacts to Earth systems,” said Roar Skålin and Stephen Hunt from the relevant WMO Executive Council Panel (PHORS).
Where the polar regions were once considered remote, isolated and irrelevant to most of the people living on our planet, the awareness of their global relevance is finally being more widely acknowledged.
“The cryosphere is important to everyone. It is everyone’s business,” Skalin and Hunt reiterated in presenting the new initiative.

“Thawing permafrost, reduced snow cover, melting glaciers, declining sea ice, and the melting of polar ice sheets and ice shelves, create risks for everyone on the planet. Such risks are felt, for example, through sea-level rise, change of hydrological and ecological regimes, changes in the global circulation and reinforced global warming,” the WMO experts state.

Ice from the mighty ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica will determine the fate of low-lying communities around the globe. (Photo: I.Quaile)

Yet there are huge deficits in ability to monitor the rapid pace of change. Over Antarctica, for instance, a continent which is bigger than the USA, there are just 127 automatic weather stations.
“There are few ocean observations – a massive gap given that the ocean is melting antarctica from underneath”, the experts add.

[tugsailor]

Arctic Alaska has a lot of later than usual ice along the shore.

[ombugge]

Maybe we are heading for the next ice age?

[tugsailor]

More likely, it’s just northerly winds bringing offshore ice south to the shore

[spowiednick]

Meantime one of the coldest Junes that i remember is coming to an end. Not compared to Philipines of course.

[ombugge]

Sea-ice lies thick on the water as Russian oil tanker sails Arctic route...

The tanker has top ice-class Arc7 and capable of independently breaking though sea-ice up to 1,8 meter thick.

Despite the complicated sea-ice conditions, the Shturman Skuratov is sailing without icebreaker assistance. According to the Northern Sea Route Administration, the tanker has permission to sail independently on the route from 1st of June 2024 to 31st of January 2025.
The ship has Kozmina, the port located on the Russian Pacific coast, as its destination. It is due to arrive in Kozmina at 11th of July.

SHTURMAN SKURATOV - IMO 9759915

[ombugge]

Arctic heavy fuel oil ban comes into effect today - Splash247

Campaigners have hit out at the many loopholes with the new Arctic rule with the International Council on Clean Transportation estimating that about 74% of ships that use HFO will be able to continue to do so through to 2029.

[ombugge]

Svalbard and geopolitics: A need for clarity

Disagreement at sea

Although Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard is not disputed, dispute over whether the provisions in the Svalbard Treaty should also apply at sea, beyond 12 nautical miles, is ongoing, as reflected in the infamous snow crab and cod quota cases. Here, it is the EU (or, at least, some EU countries) that often poses problems for Norway.

For the Norwegian government, it is necessary to continue to note that Svalbard is not demilitarized; that neither Russia, China, nor others have officially challenged Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard; and that the ongoing disagreement between Norway and some third-party countries in relation to resource management applies not to the entire archipelago but only to the Svalbard Treaty’s application beyond 12 nautical miles at sea.

[ombugge]

Wide ranging discussion on all things Arctic (mainly security and political):

Arctic views from Frode Mellemvik, a pioneer at the High North Center -...

[ombugge]

Inside a company's bid to make Alaska's next big oil field lower-carbon -...

Santos’ plan, though, also calls for something new to Alaska’s oil and gas industry. It wants to capture emissions from North Slope power plants and drill pads, and even to suck carbon dioxide directly out of the air — then inject the stuff into the ground where it can’t warm the planet.

ConocoPhillips, which is building the other big new North Slope project, Willow, says it’s evaluating its own carbon capture and sequestration options, and it has targets for curbing emissions across all its operations.

Santos’ North Slope hub could collect carbon in two ways.

It could pull the greenhouse gas directly from the air. And it could trap carbon emitted from oil field “point sources,” like power plants.

A sketch of the concept shared with policymakers shows an industrial network of carbon injection wells; pipelines; a direct air capture plant; and power plants fueled either by natural gas or a small nuclear reactor.

A diagram from a Santos presentation to Alaska legislators and staff earlier this year.

[ombugge]

Liftoff for the Norwegian satellites that will provide broadband to...

The new broadband connection will benefit aircraft, research vessels, fishing vessels, cruise ships, the Coast Guard, expeditions and other operators in the Arctic, the Norwegian Ministry of Defense informs.

[ombugge]

Interesting photo:

Gilkey Glacier, Juneau Icefield: as the glaciers thin, more bare rock is shown, and less heat is reflected back into space. (Bethan Davies photo)

Our data shows that as the snow decreases and the summer melt season lengthens, the icefield is darkening. Fresh, white snow is very reflective, and much of that strong solar energy that we experienced in the summer of 2022 is reflected back into space. But the end of summer snowline is rising and is now often occurring right on the plateau of the Juneau Icefield, which means that older snow and glacier ice is being exposed to the sun. These slightly darker surfaces absorb more energy, increasing snow and ice melt.

Source:

Alaska’s top-heavy glaciers are approaching an irreversible tipping point -...

[ombugge]

Heat wave, Svalbard style:

Svalbard had warmest June on record

PS> No A/C required.

[jdcavo]

Pretty warm in Gudvangen, need to keep all windows open despite the annoying as hell Italian woman next door who has no concept of the “inside voice.” She has not shut up for over 2 hours. I’m guessing her husband has learned to tune it out, otherwise he’d have killed her long ago.

[Urs]

Some Italian husbands just become deaf after some years… to prevent a stage in prison.

[ombugge]

Not only Italian have than problem, I believe.
(No not me thanks heaven)

@jdcavo

Gudvangen,

Have you visited the White Caves in Gudvangen?
If so, your opinion please.

[ombugge]

Being the Governor in Svalbarg is a life in luxury:

The Governor’s cabin at Gravneset, Magdalenefjorden, is one of the northernmost buildings in the world. Photo: Thomas Nilsen

https://cruise-handbook.npolar.no/en/nordvesthjornet/gravneset-in-magdalenefjorden.html

[jdcavo]

@ombugge

Have you visited the White Caves in Gudvangen

Struck me as unadulterated tourist pandering, so no. Spent what was supposed to be an easy paddle in the Nærøyfjord but turned out to be stressful battle with frequent 20 knot winds. If I wanted to be that gripped and on constant alert paddling I’d have gone to Voss for whitewater. Will stop enroute to Bergen to look at money drop falls, pretty well known in whitewater circles. Way beyond my skills in my current dotage, and even when younger, by the time I got the skills to do it, I had also gained the wisdom not to.

Money drop falls:

[ombugge]

@jdcavo

battle with frequent 20 knot winds.

I presume you didn’t come to Norway for the sun. sand and cheap booze?
If you want nice sunny weather you should have been up north ::

New tropical night in the North

Northern Norway and Trøndelag have been basking in the sun in recent weeks . In the north, they will also be able to enjoy the fine weather a little longer.

• Tomorrow will be quite good, with up to 30 degrees. It could possibly be a tropical night again in Nord-Trøndelag, Nordland and Troms.
  
  
  
  CONTINUED WEATHER WINNER: Northern Norway has been basking in the sun - and will continue to do so a little longer, before they get the remnants of the stormy weather from the south next week. Photo: Lars Martin Hunstad / VG

Source: Nå kommer regnet: – Det blir vått, ja

PS> Contrary to popular belief it doesn’t ALWAYS rain in Bergen. You could be luckier than Bruce Springsteen:

RAIN: Bruce Springsteen declared that it was very nice to be in Bergen, when he went on stage in pouring rain. PHOTO: AGNIESZKA IWANSKA / NRK