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The scene of the criminal offense : The Arctic .
The suspect : The Great Arctic Cyclone of August 2012 .
This mosaic of images taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite shows an unusually strong storm over the Arctic Ocean on Aug. 6, 2012.
The victim : The Arctic sea meth , which melted to a record low expanse last year .
" TheGreat Arctic Cycloneof August 2012 " rebel in Siberia on Aug. 2 and crossed the Arctic Ocean to Canada , lasting an unusually longsighted 13 days . The cyclone bump off a force per unit area lower limit of 966 millibar on Aug. 6 , the gloomy ever recorded for an Arctic violent storm . The potent the pressure gradient , or dispute in force per unit area , the stronger the fart associated with a violent storm .
After the storm , which was adequate instrength to a hurricane , tore across the Arctic , scientist have question whether its wind and waves were a shamed party in the disappearing Arctic sea ice .
This mosaic of images taken by NASA’s Aqua satellite shows an unusually strong storm over the Arctic Ocean on Aug. 6, 2012.
Guilty or not guilty ?
To figure out the whodunit , climate scientists from the University of Washington do the equivalent weight of a forensic test : They ran a reckoner simulation of last summer ’s weather and equate it against a second scenario that was identical , except that there was no cyclone .
" The tempest was enormous , " study co - author Axel Schweiger , a polar scientist in the university ’s Applied Physics Laboratory , allege in a statement . " The impact on the ice was immediately obvious , but the question was whether the ice that went away during the violent storm would have fade anyway because it was slender to begin with . "
Though the storm had a huge impact on sea ice while it drop dead , within two weeks , the effect diminished , lead generator Jinlun Zhang , also a scientist in the university ’s Applied Physics Laboratory , said in the command .
The final verdict ? Not guilty
The scientists reason the cyclone reduced the final September deoxyephedrine extent by almost 60,000 straight miles ( 150,000 solid kilometers ) , an additional 5 percent . However , they point out that2012 ’s record book losswas 18 percent greater than the previous Sir David Low , set in 2007 . [ TV : Powerful Arctic Cyclone Wreaks Havoc on Sea Ice ]
" Thus without the violent storm , 2012 would still have raise a record minimum , " the authors cover in their subject field , which appears online this week in the diary Geophysical Research Letters .
Warmed from below
The research also unwrap an strange mechanism for the cyclone - associate melting . A study bring out Dec. 15 , 2012 , in the same journalfocused on breaking wind let on up the iceor driving deoxyephedrine floe into area of warmer water .
But the University of Washington squad found that during the violent storm , the ice rink run largely from warm ocean water churned up by the pass violent storm . Melting quadruple during the storm , and the rate of ice red ink doubled , the discipline found .
In the Arctic summer , sea water supply becomes stratify from melt down shabu , concord to a statement from the university . A layer of frappe - cold fresh watersits just beneath the sea ice . But about 65 feet ( 20 meter ) below the surface , there is a layer of denser , saltier piddle that has been gradually warmed by the sun ’s rays .
When the cyclone swept over the drifting sparkler floes , underside ridge churned up the pee , convey Dominicus - warmed brine to the ice ’s bottom edge and stimulate it to melt , the study suggest .
