How is climate change influencing the Arctic climate and extreme weather? This is what a recent study published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated how weather and climate extremes are influencing the Arctic climate. This study has the potential to help scientists, legislators, and the public better understand how climate change is influencing regional climates and the steps that can be taken to mitigate them.
For the study, the researchers analyzed historical climate records, along with present-day data prediction models to ascertain how the Arctic climate has changed since the beginning of the century and how they project it will change before the end of this century. In the end, the researchers found that the Arctic climate system’s data foundation has changed since the year 2000 due to large changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation that made its way to the polar regions of the planet. This includes noting a 20 percent increase in heatwaves, a 76 percent increase in Atlantic Ocean warming events, and an 83 percent increase in Greenland sea ice loss.
“Prior to the 21st century, these events were rare,” said Dr. Xiangdong Zhang, who is a research professor at North Carolina State University and lead author of the study. “But with continued warming they will become the new norm, and we could see ice-free summers in the Arctic by mid-century. More work must be done to understanding the interplay of multiscale climate drivers in the Arctic, so that we can predict and plan for the future.”
This study comes as extreme weather continues to increase across the planet, including increased summer temperatures, stronger and more frequent hurricanes, and extreme drought. Therefore, changes in the Arctic climate could not only influence sea ice, but plants and animals within the region.
What new insights into climate change and the Arctic climate will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!