Science has known for years that Arctic It is one of the regions most affected by climate change.. Research so far has revealed that the temperature rise in this region is twice as fast as in the rest of the planet. But the truth is that temperatures are still rising much faster: four times more than the rest of the worldas the planet continues unresponsive to the climate emergency.
“The oft-repeated idea that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet greatly underestimates what has been observed.”, warned researchers from the Finnish Meteorological Institute in a study published in the journal Nature Communication Earth and Environment.
Using satellite data collected between 1979 and 2021, the analysis confirms for the first time this unprecedented rise in temperatures. The warming is more intense in this region due to a phenomenon called ‘Arctic amplification’, as the region is warming, on average, two to three times more than the rest of the planet. The thawing of permafrost and ice cover, high temperatures in the sea and the absence of storms are the main actors of this phenomenon. The combination of its effects is the feedback that gives rise to this unique phenomenon on the planet.
Because what happens in the North Pole is not the same in Antarctica. And there is a fundamental difference between both poles: the amount of water that composes them. The North Pole is basically water, while Antarctica has a large layer of land under the ice. In this way, Antarctica avoids entering the wheel of melting-causing phenomena.
Areas that warm up to seven times
There are regions in the Arctic that have experienced more melting than any other. Much of this ocean has been warming at a rate of 0.75 degrees or more per decade for the past 40 years. That’s four times faster than the world average. But elsewhere, such as the Eurasian sector, warming has reached 1.25 degrees Celsius per decade. So, for example andThe Barents Sea is warming seven times faster than the global average.
Calculations so far for scientists may have underestimated the phenomenon because of the area they defined as the Arctic and the duration of the period for which the warming index was calculated.
“The North Pole was defined using the Arctic Circle because we wanted to use an area that most people perceive as the North Pole,” explains Mika Rantanen, principal investigator for this paper. “Because observations after that year are more reliable, and warming intensified after 1970,” he elaborates in 1979.
Y The problem is that said warming will increase. The authors suggest that Arctic amplification is intensifying further as a result of sea ice loss. “Although the magnitude of Arctic amplification depends to some extent on how the region is defined and the time period used in the calculation, it has always been underestimated by climate models,” Rantanen said. The magnitude of Arctic amplification is affected by both climate change and long-term natural changes in climate. According to the analysis, it is likely that both factors have contributed to the increased intensity of this effect over the past 43 years.
The consequences of the total melting of the Arctic are still unknown, but there are studies that point to a relationship between the loss of the ice sheet and the ice sheet. Change in atmospheric circulation patterns, ocean circulation and thermal gradients in the Northern Hemisphere. Also, both observational and modeling studies suggest that as Arctic land ice (from glaciers) disappears, sea levels are likely to rise and weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere will change.
Impacts will likely vary by geographic location, with some experiencing hotter and drier summers, others wetter summers, while others will experience colder winters and more storms. All this will help make extreme weather events (heat waves, floods or storms) more common. In the not-too-distant future.
Reference work: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00498-3
Source: Informacion
