The Arctic Ocean is a bustling metropolis of life that ranges in size from whales the size of small ships to microscopic marine bacteria that are 300,000 times smaller than a basketball.
The Arctic Ocean is a bustling metropolis of life that ranges in size from whales the size of small ships to microscopic marine bacteria that are 300,000 times smaller than a basketball. In fact, there are billions of bacteria in Arctic waters that feed on waste from algae and other small organisms. These bacteria are typically not harmful to humans or other mammals but when ejected into the atmosphere by bubbles and waves at the ocean surface they can serve as “seeds” for forming ice crystals in Arctic clouds. This particular process is something the scientists currently don’t have a good grasp on.
Understanding clouds and how they form is essential to understanding the Arctic climate. These clouds trap warm air at the surface like a blanket. There has been a continuous increase in cloud cover over the Arctic for the past two decades and this is driving big changes on land and in the ocean.
When looking up at the sky, a large fraction of the millions of tiny droplets and ice crystals that make up clouds are formed by particles in the air called aerosols. Aerosols such as bacteria win the race when it comes to forming cloud ice, and without them or other types of cloud ice seeds like dust or pollen, a cloud would need temperatures below minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit to form ice, brrrrr.
Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via NOAA.
