Earth’s ice can be divided into two categories: ice on land — like glaciers and ice sheets — and sea ice, which forms from frozen sea water. Sea ice plays an important role in regulating our planet’s temperature. Catch up with 5 fast facts about sea ice:
go.nasa.gov/3ja2s6j Picture from a plane of old...
1. Overall, sea ice extent is declining. Each year, sea ice grows and shrinks with the seasons. As global temperatures warm, the annual minimum extent of sea ice in the Arctic is declining, each year losing an area about the size of West Virginia. Graph of Arctic sea ice ext...
2. Sea ice helps prevent atmospheric warming. By acting like a blanket on the ocean’s surface, sea ice helps keep heat in the ocean from escaping into the atmosphere. Picture of sea ice from the...
3. Sea ice is important to wildlife above and below water. It creates a habitat for animals like seals and polar bears. Its annual freeze and melt also helps stir up nutrients for tiny marine organisms called phytoplankton. Picture of an Arctic fox be...
4. Sea ice doesn’t contribute much to sea level rise. Sea ice is made of frozen sea water, so when it melts, it doesn’t add more water to the ocean. However, sea ice can act like a cork in a bottle holding back glacial ice from the water, which is lost as sea ice disappears.
5. Satellites play an important role in monitoring sea ice. The Arctic and Antarctic are difficult places to travel and provide consistent monitoring from the ground or sea. Satellites like those from @NASA, @NOAA and other agencies offer crucial, long-term sea ice observations.

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More from @NASAEarth

Mar 8
Women have been working to study and understand our home planet from @NASA's very beginning. On #InternationalWomensDay2022 and all #WomensHistoryMonth, we’ll celebrate some of the women who help us see Earth more clearly. Group photo of the Ladies o...
Dr. Kate Calvin is @NASA’s Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor. She connects climate science across the agency so we can better understand how our planet is changing. #IWD2022 #InternationalWomensDay

go.nasa.gov/3pMWCeu Dr. Kate Calvin headshot
Sascha Burton helped lead mechanical integration and test operations for the upcoming SWOT mission that will take @NASA’s first global survey of Earth’s surface water. She is now ramping up to support the NISAR mission with radar antenna deployment test campaigns. #IWD2022 Sascha Burton headshot
Read 8 tweets
Jan 24
A mapping effort led by @NASAGoddard's chief scientist shows how the explosive volcanic eruption at #Tonga's #HungaTongaHungaHaapai obliterated the island. go.nasa.gov/3rE8jo4
“This is a preliminary estimate, but we think the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT,” said Jim Garvin. 🌋
For comparison, scientists estimate Mount St. Helens exploded in 1980 with 24 megatons and Krakatoa burst in 1883 with 200 megatons of energy. go.nasa.gov/3tRKk7t
Read 7 tweets
Aug 30, 2021
Preliminary reports suggest #HurricaneIda is the fifth-strongest storm ever to make landfall in the continental U.S. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148767/…
“For me, the most compelling aspect of Ida was its rapid intensification up to landfall,” said Scott Braun, a scientist who specializes in hurricanes at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
More than 1 million customers in Louisiana had reportedly lost power by midday on August 30. Another 100,000 customers lost electricity in Mississippi and 12,000 in Alabama.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 25, 2021
We now have the first continuous near real-time observations of how humans are increasing Earth’s greenhouse effect, developed by @NASA & university partners. The research directly demonstrates how human activities are responsible for changing the climate.
go.nasa.gov/3ck7PNf
In the long run, all planets balance the energy they receive and the energy they emit back to space. Most of the energy coming from the Sun is shortwave radiation, or visible light. Energy absorbed by Earth warms the planet and longer wave (heat) energy is emitted back to space.
Some light isn't absorbed by Earth because it is reflected by the atmosphere, particles, and clouds, or light colored surfaces. Some heat heading to space is trapped by clouds and the atmosphere and gets re-radiated back down — the greenhouse effect — causing more warming.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 17, 2021
The #CountdownToMars is on! We can hardly believe that the @NASAPersevere rover is just ONE day from touching down in Jezero Crater. 🎉

No one has set foot in the crater, but we have some ideas of what to expect thanks to Lake Salda in #Turkey. 🚀

earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmat…
Take a close look at photos of these four key features found near Lake Salda. The Perseverance team hopes to find similar features on Mars. 👀
1. Microbialites

Lake Salda has hydromagnesite sediments eroded from large mounds called “microbialites”—rocks formed with the help of microbes. It would be huge news, if Jezero Crater has microbialites as well.
Read 7 tweets
Jan 29, 2021
Earth is a big, weird place in space. There’s so much happening on this planet all at once that it’s easy to forget some minor details. We asked our friends here at @NASA — and we want to share with you — the facts about Earth that live rent free in our heads. Photo of the limb of Earth taken from a window in space
Earth has a solid inner core that is almost as hot as the surface of the Sun. Earth’s core gets as hot as 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit, while the surface of the Sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Right, @NASASun?
solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/…
solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/s… Image of the sunlit side of Earth from the Earth PolychromatImage of the Sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory
Dust from the Sahara fertilizes the Amazon rainforest. 27.7 million tons blow all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the rainforest each year, where it brings phosphorus -- a nutrient plants need to grow.
go.nasa.gov/3aiOtWP Satellite image of the sunlit side of Earth with dust visibl
Read 7 tweets

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