Nature Climate Change, September 14 The Arctic is at high risk of undergoing a rapid state change away from a cryosphere-dominated system, leading researchers to call on governments urgently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid losing the its stabilizing role on the global climate system. Under current high emissions scenarios, using the new CMIP5 […]
September 22, at 15:30CEST/ 9:30AMEDT marks the autumn equinox, when the sun finally will go down on an Arctic summer like none before. Multiple heat waves broke records across the region, from Alaska to Greenland to Siberia, where the city of Verkhoyansk reached 100.4°F (38°C), the highest temperature ever recorded within the Arctic Circle. Svalbard […]
Journal of Geophysical Research, July 11 On the other side of the Arctic, an earlier study this summer found that winter storms and warm near‐surface Atlantic water appear directly responsible for winter sea ice loss in the Whalers Bay area north of Svalbard. The amount of heat transported from the Atlantic Ocean, and storm frequency both […]
Science Advances, September 2 Summer sea ice minimums receive the most attention; but Arctic sea ice has been declining year-round, and new reconstructions place the 2018 winter maximum in the Bering Sea as the lowest in at least 5500 years. The 2018 and 2019 maximums were also 60-70% lower than the averages recorded since consistent […]
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, September 3 Arctic fire emissions – those directly caused by humans, as well as those from natural phenomena such as lightning strikes – already are one-third higher than the 2019 total, which itself broke the previous record. The CO2 released from these fires through the end of August totalled around 244 […]
The Cryosphere, August 28 Rain events on some portions of the Arctic Ocean have occurred nearly 4-6 days earlier for each recent decade, accelerating the onset of sea ice melt in the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean, and in the Eurasian Marginal seas above Siberia. This study combined limited field observations at Arctic coastal […]
Nature, Communications Earth & Environment, August 13 Acceleration of outlet glaciers from the Greenland ice sheet, not compensated by accumulation above makes it the current largest contributor to sea level rise. Through the 1980s and 1990s, losses through iceberg calving and melting were replaced by snowfall, keeping the ice sheet in balance. However, starting in […]
Nature Climate Change, August 10 The Arctic Ocean could be seasonally ice-free at temperatures only slightly above today’s, once land-based Arctic summer temperatures average 4 to 5°C above pre-industrial. This would occur by summer 2035 under high emissions scenarios; parts of the Arctic were already far warmer this summer. These new simulations using CMIP6, by […]
Water and Ice Research Laboratory, August 7 This extremely warm summer is driving some dramatic collapses: one of the last remaining Canadian Ice Shelves, the Milne Ice Shelf lost 43% of its area (80 km2, greater than the size of Manhattan) in a dramatic collapse on July 31st, compromising nearby ecosystems as well as threatening […]
Nature, July 29 Over the past 40 years, the rate of change in large portions of the Arctic appears comparable to past rapid warming events, going back to the last interglacial period as reflected in this analysis of Greenland ice cores. These past warming events were typically characterized by warming rates of 1-2°C per decade […]
2020 has been an exceptionally hot year for the Arctic, especially in High Arctic Russia. Beginning in January, an extended and persistent heat wave has smashed records, peaking at 38°C (100.4°F) in June. Since then, the extreme heat has continued. For example, the Russian town of Verkhoyansk in Siberia has seen over 11 days of […]
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