arctics hottest year sees massive ice melt
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Arctic's hottest year sees massive ice melt

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Arctic's hottest year sees massive ice melt

The Arctic Report Card 2016 revealed massive melting of ice in warmest year on record.
Miami - Arab today

 The Arctic shattered heat records in the past year as unusually warm air triggered massive melting of ice and snow and a late fall freeze, US government scientists said Tuesday.

The grim assessment came in the Arctic Report Card 2016, a peer-reviewed document by 61 scientists around the globe issued by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The NOAA report covers from October 2015 to September 2016, a period it said the Arctic’s average annual air temperature over land was the highest on record.

“The report card this year clearly shows a stronger and more pronounced signal of persistent warming than any previous year in our observational record” going back to 1900, NOAA Arctic Research Program director Jeremy Mathis told the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, where the report was released.

“Those warming effects in the Arctic have had a cascading effect through the environment.”

The environment has steadily declined since scientists started doing the annual report card, now in its 11th year, co-author Donald Perovich said.

“When it started, you kind of had to listen closely because the Arctic was whispering change,” said Perovich, who works at Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering in New Hampshire.

“Now it is not whispering anymore. It is speaking change. It is shouting change.”

Warming twice as fast

The Arctic region is continuing to warm up more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, which is also expected to mark its hottest year in modern times.

Climate scientists say the reasons for the rising heat include the burning of fossil fuels that emit heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, southerly winds that pushed hot air from the mid-latitudes northward, as well as the El Nino ocean warming trend, which ended mid-year.

The Arctic’s annual air temperature over land was 3.5 degrees Celsius higher than in 1900, the report said.

The sea surface temperature in the peak summer month of August 2016 reached nine degrees Fahrenheit (five degrees Celsius) above the average for 1982-2010 in the Barents and Chukchi seas and off the east and west coasts of Greenland.

“Warm air and ocean temperatures in the fall led to a record-breaking delay in fall freeze-up,” Perovich said, noting that the Arctic sea ice minimum from mid-October to late November was the lowest since the satellite record began in 1979.

It was also 28 percent less than the average for 1981-2010 in October.

Scientists added a section to the report about noteworthy records set in October and November 2016, even though that extended beyond the report’s typical time span.

On thin ice

More of the ice that freezes in the Arctic winter is thin, made of only a single year’s worth of freeze rather than thicker, more resistant ice built up over multiple years.

In 1985, almost half (45 percent) of Arctic sea ice was called “multi-year ice.”

Now, just 22 percent of the Arctic is covered in multi-year ice. The rest is first-year ice.

In Greenland, the ice sheet continued to shrink and lose mass as it has every year since 2002, when satellite measurements began.

Melting also started early in Greenland last year, the second earliest in the 37-year record of observations, and close to the record set in 2012.

Record-low snow

The springtime snow cover in the North American Arctic hit a record low in May, when it fell below 1.5 million square miles (four million square kilometers) for the first time since satellite observations began in 1967.

This melting, combined with retreating sea ice, has allowed more sunlight to penetrate the ocean’s upper layers, stimulating widespread algae blooms.

The Arctic’s people and animals are also suffering from the climate changes.

Ocean acidification is adding new stress for ocean creatures that need calcium carbonate to build shells, affecting people in the region who rely on fish for food.

And small mammals known as shrews are increasingly becoming infected with parasites that were once known to infect shorebirds, suggesting a northerly shift of some species.

The Arctic could be free of summer ice by the 2040s, Perovich said, adding that the changing temperatures are already affecting people who live in the region.

Asked by reporters if the report was tailored to the current political environment in the United States - with President-elect Donald Trump declaring climate change a Chinese hoax and preparing a cabinet that will include climate change deniers - Mathis said no.

“This is the best possible science that we can do,” he said. “It is beyond reproach.

source : gulfnews

 

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

arctics hottest year sees massive ice melt arctics hottest year sees massive ice melt

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

arctics hottest year sees massive ice melt arctics hottest year sees massive ice melt

 



GMT 09:16 2017 Wednesday ,13 December

Cape wearing tips

GMT 20:49 2017 Monday ,21 August

South Asia floods claim more than 750 lives

GMT 19:06 2016 Saturday ,10 December

IOF Close Al-Nabi Saleh Village's Entrance

GMT 18:01 2017 Wednesday ,22 February

Abu Sayyaf ‘likely’ behind Vietnam freighter attack

GMT 06:41 2017 Sunday ,03 December

Hamas threatens 'intifada' over US moves on Jerusalem

GMT 16:17 2017 Saturday ,21 January

BMW 7 series crosses 5,000 unit mark in 2016

GMT 12:17 2016 Wednesday ,24 February

United Technologies nixes Honeywell merger

GMT 23:37 2017 Monday ,31 July

Saudi Arabia sanctions Hezbollah member

GMT 05:45 2018 Saturday ,29 September

Abdullah bin Zayed hosts official reception in New York

GMT 04:12 2018 Friday ,12 January

Saudi-led coalition says Yemen rebels threat

GMT 11:18 2014 Monday ,22 December

Richard Ward adds to The Chelsea Collection

GMT 21:20 2017 Monday ,06 February

UN resumes food air drops in Deir Ezzor

GMT 22:24 2017 Friday ,15 December

HRH Premier thanked by Cambodian counterpart

GMT 02:11 2017 Monday ,23 October

Oct24/Nov22

GMT 21:31 2017 Monday ,11 December

HM King congratulates Burkinabe President

GMT 20:22 2017 Monday ,23 October

EU deplores attack against police
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday