[Vision2020] NOAA: 2008 Annual Arctic Report Shows Stronger Effects of Warming

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20081016_arcticreport.html
 Annual Arctic Report Card Shows Stronger Effects of Warming

October 16, 2008

Temperature increases, a near-record loss of summer sea ice, and a melting
of surface ice in Greenland are among some of the evidence of continued
warming in the Arctic, according to an annual review of conditions in the
Arctic issued today by NOAA and its university, agency, and international
partners.

"Changes in the Arctic show a domino effect from multiple causes more
clearly than in other regions," said James Overland, an oceanographer at NOAA's
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory <http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/> in
Seattle and a lead author of the report. "It's a sensitive system and often
reflects changes in relatively fast and dramatic ways."

One example of these changes in arctic climate is the autumn air
temperatures which are at a record 5 degrees C (9 degrees F) above normal,
because of the major loss of sea ice in recent years. The loss of sea ice
allows more solar heating of the ocean. That warming of the air and ocean
affects land and marine life, and reduces the amount of winter sea ice that
lasts into the following summer. The year 2007 was the warmest on record for
the Arctic, continuing a general Arctic-wide warming trend that began in the
mid-1960s.

The Arctic Report Card <http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/index.html>, a
product introduced by NOAA's Climate Program
Office<http://www.climate.noaa.gov/>in 2006, establishes a baseline of
conditions in that region in the 21st
century and provides a way of monitoring the often quickly changing
conditions. It is updated annually in October and tracks the Arctic
atmosphere, sea ice, biology, ocean, land and Greenland.

In this year's report card, three of the six areas (atmosphere, sea ice, and
Greenland) are coded red on the Report Card, indicating that the changes are
strongly attributed to warming. The three remaining areas (biology, ocean,
land) are coded yellow, indicating mixed signals. The 2007 Report Card had
two red areas (atmosphere and sea ice) and four coded yellow.

"The Arctic Report Card is one of the few opportunities for a team of
researchers to work together to provide a very broad look at the state of
the Arctic system," said the report's chief editor Jackie Richter-Menge from
the USACE Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H.
"The information combines to tell a story of widespread and, in some cases,
dramatic effects of an overall warming of the Arctic system."

The report's other contributing lead authors are from the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass.; the Geophysical Institute,
University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska;  Byrd Polar Research
Center, Columbus, Ohio; and Environment Canada, Whitehorse, Yukon.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the
depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our
coastal and marine resources.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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