>>Interviewer: As we enter the dog days of summer in the United States, things are heating up even
more for farther north with melting Arctic sea ice, and here to tell us
more about it, out of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland is NASA scientist Walt Meier. Thanks for joining us, Walt.
>>Walt: Alright, thanks for having me. >>Interviewer: The Arctic is losing sea ice at a faster rate in
recent years. How are things looking this year, and what are we seeing in the long-term trend?
>>Walt: Well this year, we're reaching the end of the summer
as the sea ice, the ice floating on the ocean, declines through the
summer under the 24 hours of sunlight. And we're
about a month away from the minimum, maybe a little bit less. And
this is looking not as extreme as we've seen in some recent years,
like the record low in 2012, but it is a
one of the lowest that we've seen in our 36-year satellite
record and it's continuing a long-term trend that we've seen
since 1979 where we've lost about a third
of the sea ice covered area from the Arctic Ocean and
actually over half of the thickness and really two thirds of the volume.
So we've really seen a dramatic change in the ice cover over the last 35 years or so.
>>Interviewer: Why are we seeing these changes in the Arctic?
>>Walt: Well, basically the Earth is warming. And the warmer
temperatures are melting the ice, and we're seeing particularly warming in the Arctic
and that's actually part of a feedback with the sea ice, where
as the warming temperatures melt the ice, the ice goes away and
the ice that acts as a reflector of the Sun's energy and helps keep
things cool is disappearing. And then the ocean, which is much darker,
and more absorptive of the Sun's energy,
there's more ocean exposed and it's warming up the ocean and melting more ice
and then warming the atmosphere, as we get this amplification of the warming
in the Arctic. >>Interviewer: What is NASA doing to understand these changes?
>>Walt: Well NASA's been looking at the sea ice for well over
35 years. with satellites and aircraft. and
this year we have a particularly exciting mission called ARISE
that's flying up over the Arctic sea ice. It's leaving next
week actually, at the end of August. And it's going to be flyling
over sea ice and through the clouds and looking at the interaction between
the clouds and the atmosphere and the sea ice itself to see how
these interact and better understand the processes that are driving the loss of the sea ice
as well as potentially changes in the Arctic climate
and weather. >>Interviewer: How will these changes affect the United States?
>>Walt: Well, as I mentioned the Arctic climate is
changing. But what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic. It's not like Las Vegas.
What we see is the Arctic is very much
connected to the lower latitudes and to the United States, particularly
through the jet stream, which is the high-level fast winds
that flow across the United States. And sometimes they get wavier
which lets air come down from the Arctic, and actually that
leads to extreme weather patterns. And we're seeing a more wavy pattern
as the sea ice has been going down over the last decades.
>>Interviewer: Where can we learn more? >>Walt: You can learn a little more at
NASA.gov/EarthRightNow, where you can see
information on all of NASA's many satellites that are looking at all aspects
of the Earth, as well as images and other information. Anything you really want
to know about with what NASA's doing to study the Earth.
>>Interviewer: Dr. Walt Meier, thank you very much for joining us. >>Walt: Alright, thank you.