By 2020 the Arctic will continue its unchanging transition toward a new climate as the effects of warming across the region intensify, with snow and ice fog shrinking and triggering severe wildfires, scientists said Tuesday in the region’s annual estimate. Rick Toman, a climate expert at the University of Alaska and one of the authors of the assessment, “describes an Arctic region that continues on a path that was unimaginably hot, low – frozen, and biologically transformed.” “Almost everything in the Arctic, from snow and ice to human activity, is changing so rapidly that there is no reason to think that in 30 years anything will still exist today,” he said. As the entire planet warms up, the Arctic heats up twice as fast as other parts of the world, emitting heat-engine gases by burning fossil fuels and other human activities. That warming is having an effect elsewhere, raising sea levels, affecting ocean circulation and, as scientists increasingly suggest, plays a role in extreme weather. This year’s lowest level of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean was reached at the end of the melting season in September, the second-lowest ever on a satellite record, scientists said. On land, huge Greenland glaciers and glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere lost more than average, although the rate in Greenland was lower than last year. Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, is constantly melting and eroding along the Arctic coast, leaving communities struggling to cope with the damaged infrastructure. The most staggering, snow cover across Eurasian Arctic reached record levels in June. The subsequent drying of the soil and vegetation contributed to the wildfires, especially the burning of millions of acres of taiga or burial forests throughout Siberia. According to European researchers, the fire released one-third more heat-emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the previous year. Environmentalist and researcher Lawrence Mudrick, the lead author of Climate Change Canada’s Evaluation, said the amount of snowfall across the Eurasian Arctic was actually higher than normal this year. “However, it was still hot and it melted faster and earlier than usual,” he said. The heat was widespread throughout the Arctic. The average land temperature north of the 60 degree latitude measured from October 2019 to September was 1.9 degrees Celsius or 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit, which was the second highest on record for more than a century, above the base average for 1981-2010. Produced annually by the National Maritime and Atmospheric Administration for 15 years. More than 130 experts from 15 countries participated in this year’s edition, which was published at the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union. In recent years Arctic researchers have been recognizing that the region is moving away from an increasingly snowy climate. Snow and so on by open water and rain. In a study published in September, two researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo, argued that at least one permanent change in sea ice had already occurred. The snowfall is now very low, with Laura Lantrum and Marika M. Holland writes that even the coldest year does not cause as much snow as it usually did decades ago. Donald K., professor and leading writer at Dortmouth College. In the chapter on sea ice in the Perovich assessment, he said 2007 was an important year. “We had the biggest fall of ice we’ve ever seen,” he said. “Despite these differences, we never returned to that level before 2007.” “It’s just like we’re in this new state,” he said. Sea ice is aging and the region is warming. Three decades ago, at the end of winter, at least one-third of the Arctic Ocean bag ice was formed by four-year-old ice. This year, it is estimated that the old ice pack contains less than 5 percent of the snow. As the dominance of youngsters increased and the generally thinner ice contributed to the reduction of sea-ice levels, Dr. Perovich said thin ice was less likely to last a season. The transition from old to young snow also led to a decrease in the overall snow level. This year’s volume, measured at the end of the melting season in September, is the second-lowest in 10 years in which satellites have made reliable measurements. The assessment noted how conditions in the Arctic affected mosaic travel, in which a German research icebreaker deliberately allowed back ice to freeze in Russia and moved across the Central Arctic for over a year. The voyage to Mosaic ended in October, when the ship left the pack ice between Greenland and Norway and returned to Germany. At the start of the voyage in September 2019, the ship struggled to find an iceberg to use as a mooring that was thick and stable enough to last several months of drift. As the voyage continued, the shapes of the winds that brought such warmer temperatures to the Arctic also moved much faster than the ice and ship had expected.
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