Is a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?

Flying low and slow above the wild, pristine terrain of Alaska's North Slope in a specially instrumented NASA plane, research scientist Charles Miller of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., surveys the endless whiteness of tundra and frozen permafrost below. On the horizon, a long, dark line appears. The plane draws nearer, and the mysterious object reveals itself to be a massive herd of migrating caribou, stretching for miles. It's a sight Miller won't soon forget.

Permafrost zones occupy nearly a quarter of the exposed land area of the Northern Hemisphere. NASA's Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment is probing deep into the frozen lands above the Arctic Circle in Alaska to measure emissions of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane from thawing permafrost - signals that may hold a key to Earth's climate future. Image credit: Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

Arctic Ocean Map

Physical map of Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean, located mostly in the north polar region, is the smallest of the world's five oceans, and the shallowest. Even though IHO recognizes it as an ocean, oceanographers may call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea or simply the Arctic Sea, classifying it as one of the mediterranean seas of the Atlantic Ocean. (wp)

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Russian scientific stations in the Arctic

Russian scientific stations in the Arctic. In 1875, an Austrian geophysicist named Karl Weyprecht proposed polar stations to conduct year-round observations using consistent methods and instruments. 

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Arctic claims

National claims to the Arctic shelf. Six countries are working on bids to establish their continental shelf borders.

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The United States failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and therefore cannot file a bod for border establishment.

Ria Novosti Infographics