(Image credit: Real Ice)
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In the dim light of an Arctic winter’s day, with the setting sun casting orange rays across the frozen sea, a team of researchers drills a hole in the ice and installs a hydrogen-powered pump. It looks unremarkable – a pipe protruding from a metal cylinder – but it holds much promise for preserving this unique region. Soon, it begins sucking seawater from below and pumping it to the surface, creating a thin layer of water. Overnight, this water will freeze, thickening the existing ice.
The hope is that the stronger the ice is, the less likely it will disappear during the warm summer months.
Since satellite records began in 1979, Arctic temperatures have increased nearly four times faster than the global average. Sea ice has shrunk by about 40 percent, with the oldest, thickest ice shrinking by an alarming 95 percent. In fact, scientists recently estimated that with continued warming, the Arctic’s first ice-free day could arrive as early as 2030, just five years from now.
Researchers at Real Ice, a UK-based nonprofit, are aiming to save this disappearing landscape. Their initial experiments found that pumping just 10 inches of ocean water onto the ice surface also stimulated growth from below, increasing its thickness by an additional 20 inches. That’s because the flooding process removes the insulating layer of snow, allowing more water to freeze. When the process is complete, the ice sheet could be up to 80 inches thick — which is on the lower end of the old, multi-year ice range in the Arctic. “If this is confirmed at a larger scale, we’ll demonstrate that significant gains can be made in winter with relatively little energy input,” said Andrea Ceccolini, co-CEO of Real Ice. Ceccolini and Sian Sherwin, his co-CEO, eventually plan to build an underwater drone that could navigate between locations, determine the thickness of the ice, pump in water as needed, then refill and move on to the next location.
This winter, they conducted their largest field experiment yet, comparing the performance of eight pumps in an area of nearly half a square mile off the coast of Cambridge Bay, a small community in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, part of the Canadian Arctic. They expect results by June.
Their work is at the center of discussions about how to reduce the damage caused
Sourse: www.livescience.com
