Scientists have known the Arctic is warming faster than climate models show, but a new study just put into context how much worse the problem is.
It’s long been reported that the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. The researchers behind a Finnish Meteorological Institute study found the Arctic is heating four times faster than other parts of Earth.
The escalation of temperature rise in the Arctic is known as Arctic amplification, explains Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the lead author of the study published Thursday. Since the 1960s the globe has warmed by about 1 degree, and the Arctic has warmed by more than three degrees.
“Temperatures are rising faster in the Arctic region than globally,” Rantanen said. “One of the main reasons for Arctic amplification is the sea ice and snow loss, for example, because the open water surfaces and open land surfaces, they are darker, they absorb more solar radiation.”
Arctic amplification has been documented through weather station data as far back as the 1920s, so that is not news. But the Finnish Meteorological Institute study used publicly available data to quantify just how bad it is compared to the rest of the planet.
Click here to read more.
SOURCE: New York Post; FOX Weather, Emilee Speck