Global warming causing Arctic to warm more quickly, sixth warmest year on record

New Delhi: Summer surface air temperatures during 2023 were the warmest ever observed in the Arctic as per the Annual Arctic Report Card released by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The report card also mentioned that it was the Arctic’s sixth warmest year on record and the sea ice extent continued to decline, now registering as the lowest on record.

“The overriding message from this year’s report card is that the time for action is now,” said Dr Rick Spinrad, NOAA administrator. “NOAA and our federal partners have ramped up our support and collaboration with state, tribal and local communities to help build climate resilience. At the same time, we as a nation and global community must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions driving these changes.”

“Arctic amplification” is a widely recognized phenomenon in which human-caused global warming is amplified at the poles, causing the Arctic to warm more quickly than the rest of the globe. Multiple factors enhance warming at high latitudes, but the main one is that warming reduces snow and ice, which would otherwise reflect incoming sunlight. Arctic temperatures have risen at least twice as fast as global temperatures, possibly even faster, since 2000.

The report said the highest point on Greenland’s ice sheet experienced melting for only the fifth time in the 34-year record, contributing to a cumulative melt-day area approaching the record on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The annual Arctic Report Card, now in its 18th year, is the work of 82 authors from 13 countries. It includes a section titled Vital Signs, that updates eight measures of physical and biological changes, four chapters on emerging issues and a special report on the 2023 summer of extreme wildfires.

The shallow seas around the margins of the Arctic Ocean have warmed dramatically in the past four decades.

On average, these areas have warmed around 2° C (nearly 4 °F) over the satellite era, part of a feedback loop in which warming air and water temperatures shrink the sea ice cover, which exposes more of the ocean to direct sunlight, which drives more warming.

Places once snow-covered nearly year-round are thawing out earlier in the spring. Winter 2022-23 brought above-average snow accumulations to the Arctic, but it disappeared much more quickly in the spring than it used to.

“Although the Arctic tundra is mostly too cold and dry for trees, it’s home to other plants that have evolved to survive the frigid winters and short growing seasons on the Arctic’s coastal plains and foothills,” it said.