6.1
Albedo effect

Did you know?
Did you know that pollutants from eastern and southern Europe can travel as far north as Svalbard and east Greenland?
Did you know that forest fires far to the south send smoke and particles to the Arctic?
See story 5.1
Did you know that we can identify where the dust on the glacier comes from by its fingerprints?
See story 2.2
Did you know that there are many different types of pollutants reaching the Arctic?
See story 2.1

Get Active!
Black Ice Experiment
You will need:
Instructions
In one cup, fill with enough water to fill half of the ice cube tray.
In the other cup, fill with enough water to fill the other half of the ice cube tray. In this cup, add a few of drops of black food colouring until the water turns very black.
Fill one side of the ice cube tray with the clear water and the other half of the ice cube tray with the black water.
Wait a couple of hours until both sides of the ice cube tray have frozen solid.
Once frozen, remove the ice from its tray and put black ice into one bowl and clear ice into another bowl.
Put a lamp on top of both bowls, where the light is hitting both sets of ice equally – if your lamp is unable to do this, use two separate lamps/light sources, or you can put it outside if the sun is shining!
Time how long it takes for each bowl of ice to melt.
Why did one melt faster than the other?
In this experiment, the black ice represents ice and snow polluted by black carbon in the Arctic and the clear ice represents clean ice and snow in the Arctic. As we can see from this experiment, the colour of ice impacts its reflectivity and a darker colour can cause ice to melt much faster. This is important in the Arctic where areas of ice and snow are vast.
Ice is essential!
Ice is important as it reflects sunlight back into space to cool the Earth.
For animals, ice acts as a place to rest, birthing grounds and protection from predators such as the killer whale. Animals that highly depend on ice include polar bears, seals, walruses and even phytoplankton!
For humans, it acts as a way to hunt animals for food and clothing and even to establish floating research stations.
References