In 2002, a series of scientific studies pointed to dramatic changes in Arctic sea ice. Sea ice that survives the summer and remains year round—called perennial sea ice—is melting at the alarming rate of 9 percent per decade, according to a study by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center senior researcher Josefino Comiso. The extent of Arctic sea ice at summer's end reached a record low in 2002, reported NASA-funded researchers at the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, in Boulder. Early findings suggest that summertime melting of Arctic sea ice in 2003 is on pace to rival last year's low. In support of this evidence of a changing Arctic climate, Comiso shows in a new paper that most of the Arctic warmed significantly in the 1990s compared to the 1980s. The study also finds that the seasons when sea ice melts, between early spring and late fall, have gotten longer and warmer each decade, and that Arctic regions within North America have warmed more per decade than other Arctic areas. The study, which appears in the November 1 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate, uses surface temperature data taken from satellites between 1981 and 2001.

It is tempting to take solace in the idea that these striking changes are happening somewhere far away. But in reality, such shifts in the Arctic are likely early indications of a global climate in a state of flux. "People talk about global warming, and the Arctic really is the best place to detect global warming because the effects are amplified there," Comiso says.

View: Full Article | Source: Space Daily