IN PHOTOS Northern lights dance across the night sky in southern Ont.
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
A new study suggests that Antarctica's ice shelves may be melting faster than previously believed, which is causing sea levels to rise at a more rapid pace and accelerating the dangers of climate change.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances on Aug. 12, was conducted by Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers. It's based on a model that accounts for a narrow ocean current, which runs along the Antarctic coast.
The current's flow patterns show how freshwater, which has melted from the ice shelves, can trap dense warm ocean water at the base of the ice, intensifying heat and, therefore, causing more ice to melt.
"If this mechanism that we've been studying is active in the real world, it may mean that ice shelf melt rates are 20 to 40 percent higher than the predictions in global climate models, which typically cannot simulate these strong currents near the Antarctic coast," Andy Thompson, one of the researchers and professor of environmental science and engineering, said in a Caltech news release.
According to the release, "ice shelves are outcroppings of the Antarctic ice sheet, found where the ice juts out from land and floats on top of the ocean."
Several hundred metres thick, the shelves offer a protective buffer for the mainland ice, blocking the whole ice sheet from flowing into the ocean.
"A warming atmosphere and warming oceans caused by climate change are increasing the speed at which these ice shelves are melting," says the news release, which is "threatening their ability to hold back the flow of the ice sheet."
The study was led by senior research scientist Mar Flexas, who said their climate model assessed a current which is often overlooked by other researchers: the Antarctic Coastal Current, which runs counter-clockwise around the entire Antarctic continent, and is often considered too small to offer relevant data.
"Large global climate models don't include this coastal current because it's very narrow—only about 20 kilometres wide, while most climate models only capture currents that are 100 kilometres across or larger," Flexas said in the release. "So, there is a potential for those models to not represent future melt rates very accurately."
Increased meltwater can escalate melting at West Antarctic ice shelves thousands of kilometres away from the peninsula, the research suggests.
The release says that "this remote warming mechanism may be part of the reason that the loss of volume from West Antarctic ice shelves has accelerated in recent decades."
"There are aspects of the climate system that we are still discovering," Thompson said in the release. "As we've made progress in our ability to model interactions between the ocean, ice shelves, and atmosphere, we're able to make more accurate predictions with better constraints on uncertainty. We may need to revisit some of the predictions of sea level rise in the next decades or century—that's work that we'll do going forward."
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
The Netherlands' contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest was dramatically expelled from competition hours before Saturday's final of the pan-continental pop competition, which has been rattled by protests over the participation of Israel.
The rolling hills leading to the hamlet of Rosebud are dotted with sprawling farms and cattle pastures -- and a sign sporting a simple message: No Race Track.
An evacuation alert was issued for two Wood Buffalo communities Friday night, as crews battled an out-of-control wildfire near Fort McMurray.
Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers bounced back for a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Friday.
Irresponsibly using a credit card can land you in financial trouble, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says when used properly, it can be a powerful wealth-building tool that can help grow your credit profile and create new opportunities.
A cyclist turned herself in and received a fine after striking a four-year-old girl who was crossing the street to catch a school bus.
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.