Methane, Sea Ice & Climate Roundup with Margo (Oct. 17, 2021)
Given people’s proclivity to only recognise only one problem (usually one that threatens people personally) I imagine that this will get scant attention.
Please note the huge increase of global methane from the NOAA data.
Please note, the METOP-2 satellite (renamed METOP- A) has been terminated.
I cannot imagine in a situation where everything is breaking down and supply lines are being disrupted that this will be rectified any time soon
Meanwhile, the reliable, Navy site is down for another day.
Here is Margo’s report.
This is from Sam Carana
Perhaps even more frightening is the situation regarding methane, as illustrated by the combination image below. The MetOp-2 satellite recorded some terrifying methane levels recently. On October 14, 2021 pm, a peak methane level of 4354 ppb was recorded at 293 mb (left panel), while a mean level of 2068 ppb was recorded at 367 mb (right panel). The images show only a partial cover of the globe, so there may be some problems with this satellite, yet it could be an ominous sign of things to come.
No images were available for the MetOp-2 satellite the next day, October 15, 2021. Further complicating things, no images were available for two further satellites either, the SNPP satellite and the NOAA 20 satellite.
Very few methane measurements are available for the Arctic. Measurements are available from only a handful of ground stations, i.e. flask and in situ data at Barrow, Alaska, and flask data at Cold Bay, Alaska, at Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, at Alert, Nunavut, and at Summit, Greenland, while one-off measurements have been taken by vessels and by aircraft, such as at Poker Flats, near Fairbanks, Alaska. Availability of flask data stopped in 1997 at Mould Bay, Northwest Territories, and in 2018 at Tiksi, Russia. Moreover, to monitor methane releases from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, it is essential to have more continuous measurements taken at numerous altitudes by polar-orbiting satellites. And of course, taking measurements alone is not enough to reduce the danger.
The magenta color indicates the highest methane levels, with the highest levels first showing up over the Arctic Ocean. When rising up further toward the Tropopause, beyond what the animation shows, even more magenta shows up, with methane moving toward the Equator, as the Tropopause is higher closer to the Equator.
