A new study led by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and San Diego State University (SDSU) has examined the amount of methane gas escaping from the Arctic – a key component of global warming. The results go against conventional theory, finding that a much larger amount of the gas escapes during the Arctic winter than previously thought.
The observations focused on the amount of methane – a greenhouse gas that has a big impact of atmospheric warming – escaping from the Arctic tundra, caused largely by the decomposition of embedded organic matter. It's important to monitor these emissions, as it's thought that climate change may significantly increase the amount of gas escaping, especially that currently caught in a stable layer of frozen soil called permafrost.
The new readings aren't the first time that we've looked at the Arctic methane emissions. In fact, scientists have been using specialized equipment to accurately record the level of emissions for decades. However, there's one big problem with how things have been done up until this point – nearly all recordings have been made during the short Arctic summer.
For the winter months, which account for 70 to 80 percent of the year, climate change models have been relying purely on speculation. Those predictions generally follow a theme – that because of the frozen ground, methane emissions drop to almost zero during the winter.
Unfortunately, and thanks to the new study, we now known that the assumption isn't just too simplistic, but it's actually entirely wrong. While the ground does freeze up more in the winter than the summer, it's a little more complicated than current models predict. When temperatures drop to around 32° F (0° C), the top and bottom parts of the uppermost layer of the ground – known as the active layer –freeze, but the central section remains insulated, continuing to break down organic matter throughout the coldest periods of the year.
To determine exactly how much methane is emitted by that central layer, the researchers upgraded five sampling towers above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, enabling them to gather data throughout the year, making recordings between June 2013and January 2015. The results were instantly alarming, with the study finding that a large part of the total methane emissions from the region occurred during the colder months.
To check that their results were representative of the entire Arctic region, the researchers compared their findings to readings taken by aircraft, flying over the region as part of NASA's Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE). Aligning the two sets of data, the team found that the CARVE readings supported those of its own work, showing that methane continues to be emitted long after the surface freezes during the winter months.
With the results varying so significantly from predictions, and given that methane is such a significant driver of atmospheric warming, it's now essential that climate models be adjusted accordingly.
"It is now time to work more closely with climate modelers and assure these observations are used to improve model predictions, and refine our prediction of the global methane budget," said SDSU's Donatella Zona.
Source: NASA
AGW was proven wrong with the first CLimateGate that is now ridiculed by the media and places like WIkipedia. But anyone reading the pile of emails etc,. finds even the programmer for the project made comments to himself to ignore certain parts of actual data b/c the outcome was not going to show AGW had happened.
Then there is now the convenient forgetting that even last year the AGW people were saying there had been a 15 year hiatus. Scoffers can google "game over! The IPCC Quietly Concedes Defeat." It is simply the IPCC's own reports over tha past years being compiled and prove no AGW.
But it is likely AGW promoters will not look. The facts are not fudged in the IPCC report, but they hold this concept of AGW as a religion. Ignore the facts to keep it alive.
Technology will solve the problem. And I don't mean the climate problem, I mean the dirty energy problem. Take electric cars. Watch 'Who killed the electric car?'. What a ridiculous piece of dung. All the speculation and conspiracies about why the EV1 died. the reality is it 'died' because the technology (battery energy density and power density, as well as price/$ per kWhr) was just not ripe in the early 90's. 3 years a go the world did not have an electric car (I think barely more than 100 Tesla Roadster were produced). Over the next 25 years the rise of electric cars (light vehicles and public busses) and greening of the electric grid will make the whole 'climate worry' go away as the technology finally reaches economic viability.