Sept. 20 (UPI) -- How are snow and ice melts impacting the atmosphere and climate in the Arctic? Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute are trying to find out.
Warming temperatures and earlier more dramatic snow and ice melts are impacting the Arctic's bromine season, a unique atmospheric process. In the springtime, low temperatures and snow-covered sea ice encourage the concentration of bromine in the atmosphere. The gas reacts with and breaks down ozone, yielding bromine monoxide and oxidizing mercury.