The Arctic - The Arctic is an Ecosystem

The Arctic - The Arctic is an Ecosystem
by Bill Heal
The Arctic Is.....

The Arctic Ecosystem
As you look down from outer space, through the solar winds generated by the outpourings of the sun gusting to 200 km per minute, through the -200Â° C ozone depleted stratosphere, through the boundary layer at 3 km between the upper and lower atmosphere, there you see the Arctic lying in winter darkness dominated by the 15 million square miles of polar sea ice. In summer this is reduced to about 8 million square kilometres. The sea ice extends south to three exits of the Arctic Ocean - the narrow exit west of Greenland into the North Atlantic; through the 500 km wide strait between Greenland and Svalbard; and through the 70 kilometre Bering Strait between Chukotka and Alaska into the Bering Sea and onwards to the Pacific Ocean. The land surrounding the Arctic Ocean is covered by many glaciers but is dominated by the Greenland Ice Cap covering 1.7 million square kilometres and with a maximum thickness of 3200 km - a massive volume of 2.8 million cubic kilometres. Glacial fingers extend down the mountain ridges in Norway, the Urals, Kolyma, Alaska, the Yukon and Baffin Island reaching well below the Arctic Circle.

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