Polar Ice Research Paper

The loss of polar ice over the coming decades will lead to irreversible climate change and alter the face of the planet.
The earth as we know it is a unique planet composed of global masses of air, land and sea. Each body interacts with each other in unique physical and biochemical ways and minute changes in one mass can lead to irreversible changes to another. Climatology is that scientific endeavour that monitors climate systems to explain loss of polar ice. The variables impacting climate and polar ice and their delicate relative effect on each other will be discussed with evidence.
The physics in the melting of polar ice involves heat transfer between global land masses, air masses and oceans. Heat transfer happens from one body to another by
conduction, convection and radiation and can occur at the same time.
Anderton1984. According to Harig 2015, Antartica’s Ice sheet lost 92 billion tons of ice per year. Polar ice can take the form of Sea Ice, Glacial ice or the Ice Shelf. Polar ice is of specific interest as it represents the dynamic interface in it’s contact with the ocean and the atmosphere as they gain or lose heat to each other. The amount of heat required or released in the process differs based on the specific heat of each form of matter. Land heats up more quickly than the sea when exposed to the same amount of sun and also cools a lot quicker. The mathematical quantity of heat transfer, loss or gain in a heat transfer is given by Q = MCΔT ie. Given the specific heat of a substance, the amount of heat energy required to raise 1kg of that substance by one Kelvin degree. And so given that the Specific heat of Ice is 2100JKg-1 K-1 , Sea Water is 3900JKg-1 K-1 , and that the thermal conductivity of Air is 0.023 Jm-1 S-1 K-1 , Water is 0.56 Jm-1 S-1 K-1 and Brick is 0.84 Jm-1 S-1 K-1 . So according to this data, it is self-evident that ice changes temperature before water as it takes approx. half the amount of energy to raise one kilogram by one degree. It is
evident from the thermal conductivity values that the low values for air shows that air is a good insulator. And so with the various forms of polar ice melting, a change in temperature will have resulting change in ice first, than water, than air. This will cause changes to global temperatures and have consequence to the sea levels rising. Or will the balancing effect of the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the earth’s rotation maintain the balance? The physics of climate change, needs to be considered by other dynamic variables as documented by the research that is happening at the moment.
Permafrost, the frozen layer of soil covering the tundra biome, is a major contributor to climate change. Single cell organisms called microbes are eating away at the ancient carbons, which are trapped in the frozen soil until it thaws, and are releasing them into the atmosphere as carbon-dioxide (CO2). The CO2 which then reduces the thickness of the ozone layer, and permits more shortwave heat/ light energy to enter into the atmosphere, be absorbed and longwave heat/ light energy be radiated back and contained by the ozone layer. With the degradation of more O3, more shortwave energy is entering, and with the low thermal conductivity of air relative to water and land results in more permafrost thawing. This has a reverse cyclical effect referred to by Spencer R 2015 as ‘the runaway effect’ which stimulates the thawing of the permafrost and is destroying a very frail ecosystem, a delicate seasonal home to many life forms.

GREENHOUSE EFFECT/ GASEOUS EFFECTS

CURRENT RESEARCH ARGO/IMAS/SOOS