Alaska Native people have lived along the coasts of the Chukchi and Bering seas in northwest Alaska for thousands of years. The rich bounty of the ocean, including marine mammals, fish and birds, has sustained these communities, not only feeding them, but also shaping their traditions, culture, identity and health. The Pacific walrus is an […]
A new project will make it possible for scientists to better track a suite of phenomena in Alaska ranging from earthquakes to wildfires to sea ice. The five-year, $6.9 million project funded by the National Science Foundation will enhance measurements of Arctic change across western and northern Alaska. It’s led by the Alaska Earthquake Center, […]
The eastern Arctic Ocean’s winter ice grew less than half as much as normal during the past decade, due to the growing influence of heat from the ocean’s interior, researchers have found. The finding came from an international study led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Finnish Meteorological Institute. The study, published in the […]
For vessels that journey into the polar seas, keeping control of the spread of sea ice is critical, which means that large resources are spent to collect data and determine future developments to provide reliable sea ice warnings. – As of now, large resources are needed to create these ice warnings, and most of […]
On the cusp of Interior Alaska’s springtime, Melinda Webster will not experience it this year. She’ll miss most of summer, too. Webster will soon head north of Earth’s landmasses, to spend the next half year cradled in ice. Webster, a sea-ice specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, will in a […]
A review article published in Nature Climate Change evaluates whether severe winter weather in the United States, Europe and Asia is sensitive to Arctic temperatures. The lead author is NSF-funded scientist Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting at Atmospheric and Environmental Research. Despite a warming planet, winter weather has remained surprisingly resilient across the mid-latitudes of the Northern […]
Sea ice in the Bering Sea shrank to its lowest levels in recorded history in 2018, profoundly affecting northwest Alaska residents who depend on marine resources for food, cash and culture, according to a new peer-reviewed study. “This is an extreme event with immediate and long-lasting repercussions. It’s indicative of very rapid change in the […]
“If this were an annual health check-up, I think we’d have to say that the Arctic is chronically sick and getting worse.” In addition to warning that “the feedback to accelerating climate change may already be underway,” the U.S. government’s latest report on conditions in the Arctic reveals that temperatures in the region are persistently warming, […]
The U.S. Revenue Cutter Thetis moored to sea ice near King Island, Alaska, in 1903.Courtesy of Coast Guard Museum Northwest Our knowledge of the dwindling sea ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean comes mostly through satellites, which since 1979 have imaged the sea ice from above. The University of Washington’s Pan-Arctic Ice Ocean and […]