In the News
Unprecedented Arctic warmth in 2016 triggers massive decline in sea ice, snow
A new NOAA-sponsored report shows that unprecedented warming air temperature in 2016 over the Arctic contributed to a record-breaking delay in the fall sea ice freeze-up, leading to extensive melting of Greenland ice sheet and land-based snow cover. Now in its 11th year, the Arctic Report Card, released today at the annual American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco, is a peer-reviewed report that brings together the work of 61 scientists from 11 nations who report on air, ocean, land and ecosystem changes.
NOAA, partners to announce findings from 2016 Arctic Report Card
NOAA and its partners will release the latest scientific observations of the Arctic, a sensitive part of the world that impacts other parts of the planet, at a press conference on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, at 10:30 a.m. PT/1:30 p.m. ET, hosted by the American Geophysical Union at its Annual Fall Meeting in San Francisco.
The North Pole is an insane 36 degrees warmer than normal as winter descends
Political people in the United States are watching the chaos in Washington in the moment. But some people in the science community are watching the chaos somewhere else — the Arctic. It’s polar night there now — the sun isn’t rising in much of the Arctic. That’s when the Arctic is supposed to get super-cold, when the sea ice that covers the vast Arctic Ocean is supposed to grow and thicken.
How Capt. James Cook’s intricate 1778 records reveal global warming today in Arctic
Records from Cook's voyage north reveal the extent of the Arctic ice pack and contrast with today’s ice-free summer route through the Northwest Passage.