The Ice Age Cometh! Forget Global Warming!

Thanks for taking the time to respond, Itellsya. I appreciate the feedback. Here are some follow up comments...
{snip}
Yeah, I searched through as well and didn't find any specific regarding 'massive hunks ice'. Closest I could find was this from 2014-07-14:

So, not exactly massive hunks of ice but will fall referenced. I think I may have been more or less recalling some the day after tomorrow discussions. I'll continue looking through articles for any reference. Below is one I found on SOTT with interesting possibilities.

Well... we do get atmospheric rivers here in Northern California every season. I was mostly using them as an analogy between my hypothesis (which could very well be half-baked :nuts:) and how large amounts of ice could form and fall from the sky. I'll try to clarify a little more below...

Yes, I've read about this as well. I did find this article that provides some plausibility to large amounts of falling ice forming: Mystery of the monster hailstones -- Sott.net

Also, info on winter inversions from Wikipedia:

So I guess to clarify my hunch - could certain inversion conditions with the formation of hoarfrost and wild fluctuations in temperatures be a catalyst for large amounts of ice to form rapidly in the sky? Maybe?
{snip}


Well, it's an interesting idea that does appear to have some validity. I'm reminded of the news report (posted below) from February 2018 about a block of ice that fell from the sky nearly hitting a street cleaner, and, luckily, the incident was caught on video. Even the aviation authority speculated it could have been due to meteorological phenomenon.

At the end of the SOTT article there are links to other suspected events too.

Block of ice falls from sky landing metres from London street cleaner (VIDEO)


Chris Baynes
The Independent
Mon, 12 Feb 2018 20:37 UTC



The ice landed metres from a street cleaner.
© Bloomfield Executive Cars
The ice landed metres from a street cleaner.
A CCTV camera captured the moment a block of ice plummeted from the sky, narrowly missing a street cleaner.

Council worker Serhiy Myeshkov said he felt lucky to be alive after the sheet of ice smashed on the road metres away from him.

It is thought to have fallen from a plane flying overheard.


The ice smashed into pieces in North Road.
© Bloomfield Executive Cars
The ice smashed into pieces in North Road.
Mr Myeshkov was working in Kew, west London, under the busy Heathrow flight path when the ice crashed down nearby.

He told the Richmond and Twickenham Times: "I was sweeping on the other side of the road, then heard a loud boom.

"A piece of ice, maybe 10kg big, fell from either a plane or from the sky. It all happened very quickly.

"I wasn't scared, but it could kill you. I feel lucky."

The falling ice was captured on a taxi firm's security camera at 9am on Wednesday.

Employee Amir Khan, 39, told the Evening Standard: "It was like the start of a disaster movie, like The Day After Tomorrow.

"It made such a loud noise like a meteorite crashing down. The street cleaner was so confused and scared. Everyone came running out to look at the sky. It was crazy."

A spokesman for the CAA said: "Although ice does very occasionally fall from aircraft, it can also be the result of meteorological phenomena.

"We receive around 30 reported ice falls every year, although we are not certain how many of these incidents are the result of ice falling from an aircraft."And from Sky News:

It is understood they can be caused by leaks from planes or when ice forms on planes at higher altitudes and breaks off in warmer air.

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said: "Ice falls can be as a result of meteorological phenomena, however ice falls from aircraft are considered to be rare in UK airspace.
Onlookers took photos of the smashed ice block
© @huldatheprophet
Onlookers took photos of the smashed ice block

Comment: The comments from the aviation authority hint at it being a meteorological phenomenon, and when we take into account the very dramatic changes occurring in our environment, it's possible these 'ice from the sky' reports may hint at the cooling of our planet:

About how megacryometeors form, on Wiki we can read:

Megacryometeor

A megacryometeor is a very large chunk of ice which, despite sharing many textural, hydro-chemical, and isotopic features detected in large hailstones, is formed under unusual atmospheric conditions which clearly differ from those of the cumulonimbus cloud scenario (i.e. clear-sky conditions). They are sometimes called huge hailstones, but do not need to form under thunderstorm conditions. Jesús Martínez-Frías, a planetary geologist and astrobiologist at Institute of Geosciences (Spanish: Instituto de Geociencias, IGEO) in the Spanish National Research Council (Spanish: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC)[1] in Madrid, pioneered research into megacryometeors in January 2000 after ice chunks weighing up to 6.6 pounds (3.0 kg) rained on Spain out of cloudless skies for ten days.



Mass and size​

More than 50 megacryometeors have been recorded since the year 2000. They vary in mass between 0.5 kilograms (1.1 lb) to several tens of kilograms. One in Brazil weighed in at more than 50 kilograms (110 lb).[2] Chunks about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in size fell in Scotland on 13 August 1849.[3]


Formation​

The process that creates megacryometeors is not completely understood, mainly with respect to the atmospheric dynamics necessary to produce them. They may have a similar mechanism of formation to that leading to production of hailstones.[4] Scientific studies show that their composition matches normal tropospheric rainwater for the areas in which they fall. In addition, megacryometeors display textural variations of the ice and hydro-chemical and isotopic heterogeneity, which evidence a complex formation process in the atmosphere.[5][6][7] It is known that they do not form from airplane toilet leakage because the large chunks of ice that occasionally do fall from airliners are distinctly blue due to the disinfectant used (hence their common name of "blue ice").

Some have speculated that these ice chunks must have fallen from aircraft fuselages[4] after plain water ice accumulating on those aircraft through normal atmospheric conditions has simply broken loose. However, similar events occurred prior to the invention of aircraft.[8][9] Studies indicate that fluctuations in tropopause, associated with hydration of the lower stratosphere and stratospheric cooling, can be related to their formation.[5] A detailed micro-Raman spectroscopic study made it possible to place the formation of the megacryometeors within a particular range of temperatures: −10 to −20 °C (14 to −4 °F).[10] They are sometimes confused with meteors because they can leave small impact craters.

What's interesting is that these events that may be megacryometeors or similar seem to often occur during clear skies.

It's also interesting you mention atmospheric inversions because, whilst i haven't come across many stories of megacryometeors or similar - although one article claimed there's been at least 100 events in the past 50+ years - there is quite a bit of evidence of various other kinds of atmospheric phenomenon that's attributed to these inversions or the overall cooling of the atmosphere. One would suspect that it's not 'just' temperature, as such, but that cometary dust and electrical charge has something to do with all these phenomena, too.

Wiki has some info about inversion and associated phenomena:

Wave propagation​

Light​

As the temperature of air increases, the index of refraction of air decreases, a side effect of hotter air being less dense. Normally this results in distant objects being shortened vertically, an effect that is easy to see at sunset where the sun is visible as an oval. In an inversion, the normal pattern is reversed, and distant objects are instead stretched out or appear to be above the horizon, leading to the phenomenon known as a Fata Morgana or mirage.

Inversions can magnify the so-called "green flash"—a phenomenon occurring at sunrise or sunset, usually visible for a few seconds, in which the sun's green light is isolated due to dispersion. The shorter wavelength is refracted most, so it is the first or last light from the upper rim of the solar disc to be seen.[citation needed]

Here's a story from 2018: Rare green flash sunset photographed flickering into even rarer blue in Norway - and there a few more examples of the green flash that can be found at the link.

Another related inversion phenomena seems to be Fata Morgana, Fata Morgana? 'Ghost City' mirage filmed over lake in China.

Fata morgana and inversion - wiki:
The optical phenomenon occurs because rays of light are bent when they pass through air layers of different temperatures in a steep thermal inversion where an atmospheric duct has formed.[1] (A thermal inversion is an atmospheric condition where warmer air exists in a well-defined layer above a layer of significantly cooler air. This temperature inversion is the opposite of what is normally the case; air is usually warmer close to the surface, and cooler higher up.)

Anyway, i'm glad you brought it up because it's certainly something to be aware of, and after looking into a bit more, i will have a better idea of what to keep an eye out for! :-) It also seems to me that there's more to be discovered about the phenomena so it'll be interesting to see what other information is out there.
 
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This afternoon there was an article in Jyllands-Posten (Danish) written by Keld Louie Pedersen. I only have the beginning and translated it with a machine. Apparently what happened in Texas, has given some analysts food for thought, or is it rather an icicle to chew on:
YANDEX.TRANSLATE:
23.02.2021 AT. 16:26
The cold shock in Texas scares the global energy industry
A winter storm has put the oil state down, and it may take 20 years to pay the bill.
1614114396931.png
The power companies in Texas, like here in Fort Worth, have been busy restoring the supply lines. Millions of consumers are left with astronomical bills. AFP / Ron Jenkins

Climate change is a reality, and temperatures know only one way: up. Also in the US state of Texas, where sun and Danish summer temperatures are not unusual in February.

Therefore, virtually everything and everyone was unprepared when the worst winter weather in a lifetime hit the State on the Gulf of Mexico.

Central parts of the energy system could not cope with the load, as demand exploded to a record high, and at least 3.5 million. people and businesses were left without electricity, ...
 
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Just wanted to mention that some Russian scientists are slowly changing the narrative and are now openly declare that we are about to enter the new Ice Age. But still with some "impression management" going on.

Two Russia climate scientists shared their views on Russian mainstream sites. Here and here are the links if anyone who knows Russian reads this post. According to Kotlyakov we should expect Ice Age within10-15 years, while Matishov still claims that we have thousands of years.

It's true that we heard Russian scientists saying the same thing before, but these claims were mostly done by scientists that don't have a "renowned" reputation, and the whole tone was usually a "semi-quacky" like. Basically, Russian media and Russian government always presented the accepted narrative of Global Warming. Well, at least officially.

In reality, in recent years Russia built or in the process of building several large and advanced ice-breakers, and in general it looks like Putin and his team do take steps to be prepared for whatever comes.

For example, here's a paper that was written by Matishov and other scientists. The paper was written in 2014. In this paper he describes a situation where Northern Sea Route in the Arctic was mostly free of ice due to warming, but southern areas of Russia and Europe experienced extreme and unprecedented low temperatures. I will quote only part of the paper, but more knowledgeable people can perhaps read it in its entirety and understand it better.


Strong warming has been recorded in the Arctic Ocean and its shelf seas since the beginning of the 21st century (Matishov et al., 2009, Alekseev et al., 2010, Kattsov and Porfiryev, 2011). The positive water temperature anomaly in Atlantic water masses has remained in the Barents Sea for no less than ten years (Matishov et al., 2009, Matishov et al., 2012a).

The Arctic ice area in summer and autumn has decreased significantly in recent years; as a result, navigation on the Northern Sea Route has taken place without icebreaker support. Parts of the Pechora and Kara Seas were ice-free in the winter of 2011/12, whereas the probability of that condition based on long-term data is close to zero. Meanwhile, at the beginning of 2012 (January and February) the air temperature on Franz Josef Land reached values that were close to the absolute maximum (+ 1 − 2°C). The position of the ice edge in the Barents Sea was close to its climatic minimum with 1% probability. In the Kara Sea significant areas of water remained open until February. No such climatic data had previously been recorded (Atlas of the oceans … 1980).

Some researchers believe that the decrease in the ice extent in the Arctic basin in summer and autumn is caused by a change in the large-scale atmospheric circulation (Overland & Wang 2010), which results in an increase of blocking situations and precipitation in Europe in winter (Liu et al. 2012).

At the same time anomalously cold weather in the second half of winter has become a typical phenomenon in central and southern Europe and the adjacent seas (the Sea of Azov, the north-eastern Black Sea, the northern Caspian Sea) (Matishov et al., 2012a, Moore and Renfrew, 2012, Tourpali and Zanis, 2013). The anomalies in January and February of 2006 and 2012 were especially pronounced. The air temperature in the south of European Russia decreased in January 2006 to − 32 − 33°C; the average monthly values were about − 15°C, that is, 12 − 15°C below the climatic norms. Similar conditions were recorded in January and February 2012. At that period the influence of the Siberian High reached as far as the English Channel and Portugal. It was the first time in 30 years that the northern part of the Black Sea was frozen, the first time in 80 years when the canals of Venice were iced over, and that piers at harbours on Lake Geneva were covered by ice.

On the Sea of Azov and the Caspian Sea, navigation, which typically does not encounter any obstacles all the year round, was seriously complicated by the ice cover. The duration of the ice period was as long as 50–80 days on the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov. About 100 vessels were locked in the ice in offshore areas and in ports of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait in February and March 2012 (Matishov et al. 2012a). On the Caspian Sea the drifting ice spread along the west coast to the Apsheron Peninsula.

At the end of the 19th century the climatologist A. I. Voeikov was analysing the connection between wind and pressure and came to basic conclusions about the development of ‘big axis of the European-Asian continent’ (Voeikov 1884). The Siberian High with its extension to south-west Europe is known as the axis of Voeikov. This climatic axis manifests itself as a wind divide, which separates winds with a southerly component (to the north of the axis) from winds with a northerly component (to the south of the axis). As a result the anomalous advection of the Siberian High circulation reaches the Pyrenees and at the same time Atlantic waters flow into the Arctic towards Franz Josef Land during winter (Figure 1).

As a consequence, the atmospheric circulation conditions above the northern hemisphere were studied in detail by Vangengeim (1940), Dzerdzeyevskiy et al. (1946), Girs (1971) and Kononova (2009). Several sets of macrosynoptic process types were developed on a similar methodological basis (zonal and meridional transfers with subtypes). The persistence of the blocking anticyclone leads to a cooling of the surface layer of the atmosphere above the continent, and this easterly transfer impairs the warming effect of southern seas.

In our opinion the intensification of these processes in the atmosphere favours the development of weather anomalies, as well as anomalies of hydrological and ice conditions, which are of different signs depending on the season and geographical location of atmospheric transfers. To estimate such anomalies we used a database of climatic and biological parameters of the Arctic and southern seas, which was created as a result of many years’ cooperation with NOAA and the World Ocean Data Center of the USA (Moiseev et al. 2012). Furthermore, the anomalous situation in January-March 2012, which is elucidated by a unique set of meteorological and oceanological data, will be considered.

In the conclusion he also mentions there following. So it seems like Putin heard him or others Russian scientists that said the same.

Climate anomaly assessments are especially important in the context of the prospective activities of oil and gas companies on the Barents and Kara Sea shelves. No less important are the ice conditions along the Northern Sea Route. The warming of 2000–2012 has already led to the refusal of ice-breaker support from companies participating in Arctic shipping. The reverse trend may bring about unfavourable consequences for all kinds of economic activity in the Russian Arctic.

And this is an article that was written by Kotlyakov for the UN, where he discusses a connection between global warming and glaciers, and also a mechanism of surging glaciers.


Bsically they demonstate the same logic that global warming contributes to and triggers global cooling.

Here are some relevant quotes from both articles in Russian that I mentioned:

According to the climatologist, mankind is now passing through an interglacial epoch, during which the temperature has risen again. At the same time, according to Kotlyakov, the increased heat is precisely contributing to the formation of glaciers.

"If it gets warmer now, then the air above the ground becomes more humid in general. And now this moisture, it is carried by air currents and enters including the Antarctic. There are precipitation in the form of snow, the amount of ice even increases, "- explained the academician.

According to NASA observations, a minimum of sunspots on the surface of the Sun was recorded in 2020, which could mean the beginning of a new era of cooling on the planet. But there have been cases of global cooling on Earth before. They are also called "Little Ice Ages".

"Over the past 15 years, the Taganrog Bay has been covered in ice for an average of 54 days a year. For the south, this is unusually much and closer to a cold snap," Matishov added, noting that we should be guided by data for a hundred years.

He stressed that the climate is cyclical. As an example of warming similar to that observed in recent years, the scientist cited the situation in 1878, when the ship "Vega" passed the entire Northern Sea Route in one season.

Matishov again pointed out that the climate is cyclical, but that it is now cooling rather than warming. This is evidenced by the imbalance of climate in the European part of Russia: cold winters, droughts, fires, intense precipitation.
 
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A recent publication, including two photos of (1) current frost weathering in the USA and (2) an estimate of permafrost extent during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Of particular note is the LGM permafrost boundary. There's no timescale, or indication of phases or progression of glaciation, but as a snapshot it is worth looking at.

Study: Effects of Past Ice Ages More Widespread Than Previously Thought

"Cold temperatures, prevalent during glacial periods, had a significant impact on past and modern unglaciated landscapes across much of North America, according to a recent study by University of Arkansas geologist Jill A. Marshall. "​


The findings help shape understanding of the earth’s “Critical Zone,” the relatively thin layer of the planet that extends from where vegetation meets the atmosphere to the lowermost extent of weathered bedrock. “Climate and ecosystems determine how quickly bedrock weathers, how soil is produced, how sediment moves on land and in rivers and other factors that shape the landscape,” the authors wrote.

In cold lands, such as Alaska today, frost can crack or weather rock that is at or near the surface of the earth – making it more porous and turning solid rock into sediment. By applying a frost-weathering model to North America paleoclimate simulations tracking temperatures during the Last Glacial Maximum approximately 21,000 years ago, Marshall and her team determined that a large swath of North America, from Oregon to Georgia and as far south as Texas and Arkansas, were likely affected by such periglacial processes.

While permafrost landscapes like the modern Arctic experience frozen ground for two years or more, periglacial landscapes, though not permanently frozen, experience below-freezing temperature for much of the year. Though the evidence of past periglacial processes is easily hidden by vegetation and/or erased by subsequent geological processes, the teams’ results suggest that frost weathering (and by extent other periglacial processes) covered an area about 3.5 times larger than the mapped extent of permafrost during the Last Glacial Maximum. This predicted influence of past cold climates on below ground weathering may significantly influence modern landscape attributes that we depend on such as soil thickness and water storage.

“Based on the widespread occurrence of glacial-period frost weathering over meter-scale depths, we suggest that past cold climates have had a significant impact on modern landscapes, both through lingering impact on subsurface pathways for water and thus chemical weathering, and the rock damage that contributes to the rate at which rock disaggregates into sediment and potential instability due to non-steady rates of hillslope and river processes,” the paper states.



1614184402945.png
 
The Jet stream is doing some nice displays. After reading the following on the Wiki:
The strongest jet streams are the polar jets, at 9–12 km (30,000–39,000 ft) above sea level, and the higher altitude and somewhat weaker subtropical jets at 10–16 km (33,000–52,000 ft). The Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere each have a polar jet and a subtropical jet. The northern hemisphere polar jet flows over the middle to northern latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia and their intervening oceans, while the southern hemisphere polar jet mostly circles Antarctica all year round. [...].[2]
I continued to Ventusky.com to look at the wind speed at an altitude of 300 hPa (9000 m):
1614190549216.png
Today we there were having up to 13 degrees in Southern Scandinavia, while the temperatures in large parts of Russia are blisteringly cold.

1614190921101.png
One difference between North America and Asia is that North America is generally closer to warm seas. I begin to understand the possibility that an ice age would come from Asia.
 
Germany recorded the largest temperature drop in history

Climatologists from the German Meteorological Service on Tuesday, February 23, said that the country had never experienced temperature fluctuations like those recorded by the station in Göttingen.

During the week, the temperature changed by 41.9 degrees.


On February 14, the minimum was -23.8, and seven days later, on the 21st, the maximum value was +18.1.

Nature set the previous record in this area in the spring of 1880, at the very beginning of the history of meteorological accounting. According to the representative of the meteorological service, then the temperature rose by 41 degrees in a week.

On 22 February, two local heat records were also set in northern Germany. In Quickbourne, the temperature maximum reached +18.9 degrees Celsius, breaking the previous 17.8-degree record recorded in 2019. In the Hamburg area at the Neuviedenthal meteorological station on the same day, the equipment registered +21.1. In 2020 at this time, the record was +18.1.

Thus, for the first time in the history of meteorological observations in Germany, the temperature in Hamburg in the winter period exceeded +20 degrees Celsius.

 
I just got my latest Ben Davidson book in the mail
''THE NEXT END OF THE WORLD ''
The Rebirth of Catastrophism

he has some interesting bits I was not aware before

page 69
the symbolism of the Apollo mission is another matter . Why name the lunar mission ''Apollo''?
Apollo had nothing to do with the moon , as he was a solar deity.
The overall mission logo appears to show the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, with one being the sun itself,more or less in their appropriate colors.
image of logo
1614173298820.png
1 white,wearing a crown
2 red, stealing the civility of the people
3 black, holding the scales of justice
4 pale, and hell follows him
the changing magnetic field of earth is going to change how we see light from space; light is an electromagnetic wave. The filtering of various color spectra is diminished under the ongoing weakening of earth's field, such that the yellow sun now appears so brightly white at the top of the sky that it has brilliant rays radially shooting out-like its wearing a crown.
If the solar output slows down or accumulation builds in the sun's atmosphere, it will turn red, and through fear and panic , the people will lose much of their humanity.
When accumulation overcomes the sun and ''blocks the pressure vent'', it will look black ,and its equatorial electric field will glow visibly around its equator, appearing like a tipping scale used in antiquity .
When the internal solar pressure builds and finally blasts off the accumulated outer shell in the micro nova , we will peer through the dust and gas and plasma and once-again see that familiar pale yellow hue, but hell follows with it.......

Ben also looks into the flash frozen mammoth issue and if the crust will shift as well as the magnetic field
 
Interesting article about the Beaufort Gyre and the fresh water transport it causes when it releases. Could be the final blow for the already weak gulf stream system

The Beaufort Gyre is a clockwise wind pattern in the western Arctic Ocean that causes freshwater to accumulate at the ocean’s surface. When those winds relax, the freshwater drains not through Fram Strait, but through the narrow channels of the Canadian Archipelago to reach the Labrador Sea, off the coast of Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador
The Beaufort Sea, which is the largest Arctic Ocean freshwater reservoir, has increased its freshwater content by 40% over the past two decades”

The volume of freshwater now in the Beaufort Sea is about twice the size of the case studied, at more than 23,300 cubic kilometers, or more than 5,500 cubic miles.

Record-high Arctic freshwater will flow through Canadian waters, affecting marine environment and Atlantic ocean currents​

Hannah Hickey
UW News
Colored map of the North Atlantic and Arctic

A simulated red dye tracer released from the Beaufort Gyre in the Artic Ocean (center top) shows freshwater transport through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, along Baffin Island to the western Labrador Sea, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, where it reduces surface salinity. At the lower left is Newfoundland (triangular land mass) surrounded by orange for fresher water, with Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence above colored yellow.Francesca Samsel and Greg Abram
Freshwater is accumulating in the Arctic Ocean. The Beaufort Sea, which is the largest Arctic Ocean freshwater reservoir, has increased its freshwater content by 40% over the past two decades. How and where this water will flow into the Atlantic Ocean is important for local and global ocean conditions.

A study from the University of Washington, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that this freshwater travels through the Canadian Archipelago to reach the Labrador Sea, rather than through the wider marine passageways that connect to seas in Northern Europe. The open-access study was published Feb. 23 in Nature Communications.

“The Canadian Archipelago is a major conduit between the Arctic and the North Atlantic,” said lead author Jiaxu Zhang, a UW postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies. “In the future, if the winds get weaker and the freshwater gets released, there is a potential for this high amount of water to have a big influence in the Labrador Sea region.”

The finding has implications for the Labrador Sea marine environment, since Arctic water tends to be fresher but also rich in nutrients. This pathway also affects larger oceanic currents, namely a conveyor-belt circulation in the Atlantic Ocean in which colder, heavier water sinks in the North Atlantic and comes back along the surface as the Gulf Stream. Fresher, lighter water entering the Labrador Sea could slow that overturning circulation.

“We know that the Arctic Ocean has one of the biggest climate change signals,” said co-author Wei Cheng at the UW-based Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Atmosphere Studies. “Right now this freshwater is still trapped in the Arctic. But once it gets out, it can have a very large impact.”

map showing relevant sites

The Beaufort Gyre is a clockwise wind pattern in the western Arctic Ocean that causes freshwater to accumulate at the ocean’s surface. When those winds relax, the freshwater drains not through Fram Strait, but through the narrow channels of the Canadian Archipelago to reach the Labrador Sea, off the coast of Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador.
Fresher water reaches the Arctic Ocean through rain, snow, rivers, inflows from the relatively fresher Pacific Ocean, as well as the recent melting of Arctic Ocean sea ice. Fresher, lighter water floats at the top, and clockwise winds in the Beaufort Sea push that lighter water together to create a dome.

When those winds relax, the dome will flatten and the freshwater gets released into the North Atlantic.

“People have already spent a lot of time studying why the Beaufort Sea freshwater has gotten so high in the past few decades,” said Zhang, who began the work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “But they rarely care where the freshwater goes, and we think that’s a much more important problem.”

Using a technique Zhang developed to track ocean salinity, the researchers simulated the ocean circulation and followed the Beaufort Sea freshwater’s spread in a past event that occurred from 1983 to 1995.

colored map showing salinity

This map shows the study region of the Beaufort Gyre and nearby waters, with colors showing the average surface salinity for 1983-2008. Labels show the Labrador Sea’s exit region, Nares Strait, Lancaster Sound, Davis Strait and Fram Strait.Zhang et al./Nature Communications
Their experiment showed that most of the freshwater reached the Labrador Sea through the Canadian Archipelago, a complex set of narrow passages between Canada and Greenland. This region is poorly studied and was thought to be less important for freshwater flow than the much wider Fram Strait, which connects to the Northern European seas.

In the model, the 1983-1995 freshwater release traveled mostly along the North American route and significantly reduced the salinities in the Labrador Sea — a freshening of 0.2 parts per thousand on its shallower western edge, off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, and of 0.4 parts per thousand inside the Labrador Current.

The volume of freshwater now in the Beaufort Sea is about twice the size of the case studied, at more than 23,300 cubic kilometers, or more than 5,500 cubic miles. This volume of freshwater released into the North Atlantic could have significant effects. The exact impact is unknown. The study focused on past events, and current research is looking at where today’s freshwater buildup might end up and what changes it could trigger.

“A freshwater release of this size into the subpolar North Atlantic could impact a critical circulation pattern, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which has a significant influence on Northern Hemisphere climate,” said co-author Wilbert Weijer at Los Alamos National Lab.

This research was funded by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and NOAA. Other authors are Mike Steele at the UW Applied Physics Laboratory and Tarun Verma and Milena Veneziani at Los Alamos National Lab

Warming The below article has a bias towards the whole global warming scam

Gulf Stream System at its weakest in over a millennium​


Gulf Stream System at its weakest in over a millennium​



02/25/2021 - Never before in over 1000 years the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as Gulf Stream System, has been as weak as in the last decades. This is the result of a new study by scientists from Ireland, Britain and Germany. The researchers compiled so-called proxy data – taken mainly from natural archives like ocean sediments or ice cores – reaching back many hundreds of years to reconstruct the flow history of the AMOC. They found consistent evidence that its slowdown in the 20th century is unprecedented in the past millennium – it is likely linked to human-caused climate change. The giant ocean circulation is relevant for weather patterns in Europe and regional sea-levels in the US; its slowdown is also associated with an observed ‘cold blob’ in the northern Atlantic.
Gulf Stream System at its weakest in over a millennium
Graphik: Levke Caesar.
“The Gulf Stream System works like a giant conveyor belt, carrying warm surface water from the equator up north, and sending cold, low-salinity deep water back down south. It moves nearly 20 million cubic meters of water per second, almost a hundred times the Amazon flow,” explains Stefan Rahmstorf from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK, initiator of the study published in Nature Geoscience. Previous studies by Rahmstorf and colleagues showed a slowdown of the ocean current of about 15 percent since the mid-20th century, linking this to human-caused global warming, but a robust picture about its long-term development has up to now been missing: This is what the researchers provide with their review of results of proxy data studies.
“For the first time, we have combined a range of previous studies and found they provide a consistent picture of the AMOC evolution over the past 1600 years,” says Rahmstorf. “The study results suggest that it has been relatively stable until the late 19th century. With the end of the little ice age in about 1850, the ocean currents began to decline, with a second, more drastic decline following since the mid-20th century.” Already the 2019 special report on the oceans of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with medium confidence ‘that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) has weakened relative to 1850–1900.’ “The new study provides further independent evidence for this conclusion and puts it into a longer-term paleoclimatic context,” Rahmstorf adds.
From temperature to flow speed changes: the art of reconstructing past climate changes
Because ongoing direct AMOC measurements only started in 2004, the researchers applied an indirect approach, using so-called proxy data, to find out more about the long-term perspective of its decline. Proxy data, as witnesses of the past, consist of information gathered from natural environmental archives such as tree rings, ice cores, ocean sediments, and corals, as well as from historical data, for instance from ship logs.
“We used a combination of three different types of data to obtain information about the ocean currents: temperature patterns in the Atlantic Ocean, subsurface water mass properties and deep-sea sediment grain sizes, dating back from 100 to ca. 1600 years. While the individual proxy data is imperfect in representing the AMOC evolution, the combination of them revealed a robust picture of the overturning circulation,” explains Levke Caesar, part of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Unit at Maynooth University and guest scientist at PIK.
As proxy records in general are subject to uncertainties, statistician Niamh Cahill from Maynooth University in Ireland tested the robustness of the results in consideration of these. She found that in 9 of the 11 data sets considered, the modern AMOC weakness is statistically significant. “Assuming that the processes measured in proxy records reflect changes in AMOC, they provide a consistent picture, despite the different locations and time scales represented in the data. The AMOC has weakened unprecedentedly in over 1000 years” she says.
Why is the AMOC slowing down?
An AMOC slowdown has long been predicted by climate models as a response to global warming caused by greenhouse gases – according to a number of studies, this is likely the reason for the observed weakening. The Atlantic overturning is driven by what the scientists call deep convection, triggered by the differences in the density of the ocean water: Warm and salty water moves from the south to the north where it cools down and thus gets denser. When it is heavy enough the water sinks to deeper ocean layers and flows back to the south. Global warming disturbs this mechanism: Increased rainfall and enhanced melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet add fresh water to the surface ocean. This reduces the salinity and thus the density of the water, inhibiting the sinking and thus weakening the flow of the AMOC.
Its weakening has also been linked to a unique substantial cooling of the northern Atlantic over the past hundred years. This so-called ‘cold blob’ was predicted by climate models as a result of a weakening AMOC, which transports less heat into this region.
The consequences of the AMOC slowdown could be manifold for people living on both sides of the Atlantic as Levke Caesar explains: “The northward surface flow of the AMOC leads to a deflection of water masses to the right, away from the US east coast. This is due to Earth’s rotation that diverts moving objects such as currents to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. As the current slows down, this effect weakens and more water can pile up at the US east coast, leading to an enhanced sea level rise.” In Europe, a further slowdown of the AMOC could imply more extreme weather events like a change of the winter storm track coming off the Atlantic, possibly intensifying them. Other studies found possible consequences being extreme heat waves or a decrease in summer rainfall. Exactly what the further consequences are is the subject of current research; scientists also aim to resolve which components and pathways of the AMOC have changed how and for what reasons.
“If we continue to drive global warming, the Gulf Stream System will weaken further – by 34 to 45 percent by 2100 according to the latest generation of climate models,“ concludes Rahmstorf. “This could bring us dangerously close to the tipping point at which the flow becomes unstable.”
 
Very beautiful video. What might be the mechanisms for such a thing to break off? The cracks are huge and 9/10 are not even seen. It goes down really deep.

SOTT covered the story here and the editors comment:

Comment: As noted in the following article, calving, whereby an ice berg splits off from a glacier, is caused by glacial expansion, and thus a process associated with cooling, not warming: Iceberg the size of London calves off Antarctica - Caused by a glacier EXPANDING, not melting

I had missed the article on SOTT and it was shared on social media today.
 
Continued from above post.

Turkey:


Bulgaria:


Thank heavens for social media.

Also in south east Europe -


 
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