Arctic Report Card

 

Dec. 1, 2011 --  Arctic scientists who monitor the rapid changes in the Earth’s north polar region say that the area is entering a new state – one that has warmer air and water temperatures, a change in the ocean chemistry, and variations to land and sea life. Read the full news release.  

See the full 2011 Arctic Report Card for details.

 

 

Every year since 2006, NOAA has issued an annual Arctic Report Card which includes assessments from scientists around the world. Over the past five years, the Arctic has become a warmer, greener place with changed ocean chemistry. Watch this video to learn about changes documented in the 2011 Arctic Report Card.

 

A team of scientists from the United States and the UK went to Greenland in the summer of 2011 and witnessed the birth and death of a superglacial lake named Lake Ponting. Watch this video from the Cyrocity YouTube site by the Cryospheric Processes Laboratory of the City College of New York. 

 

 

 

Norht Pole Web Cam 2011. Researchers from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory deployed a video camera on an ice floe at the North Pole in Summer 2011 at the North Pole Environmental Observatory. In 2011, melt was very rapid in July, and the web cam tipped over on July 23 in the melted snow and ice. See also http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/gallery_np.html.

 

Researchers took small, new, remotely operated, unmanned aircraft to the Arctic in April and May 2011 to measure black soot. The soot is produced by burning diesel fuel, agricultural fires, forest fires, and woodburning stoves. It is transported by winds to the Arctic, where it darkens the surface of snow and ice, enhancing melting and solar warming. See also http://saga.pmel.noaa.gov and http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/edd/manta.html.