Arctic Temps Show Rise, NASA Study Says

New evidence of a rise in Arctic temperatures may be a further warning sign of global warming, according to a NASA study to be published next month.

The study – which used satellite images taken from space – found that most of the Arctic warmed significantly over the last 10 years, rising 1.08 degrees per decade.

The biggest temperature increases occurred in North America, with an increase of 1.9 degrees in 10 years.

“The warming rate is quiet high compared to what we observed previously,” Dr. Josefino C. Comiso, the study’s author, told APTN.

Comiso, the senior research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said the study looked at surface temperatures taken from satellites between 1981 to 2001.

Last year, another NASA study found that sea ice in the Arctic was declining at a rate of 9 percent per decade. That study also found that in 2002, summer sea ice hit record low levels.

Scientists fear that these trends are a result of greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere.

According to NASA’s new study, the rate of warming in the Arctic over the last 20 years is eight times the rate of warming over the last 100 years.

The new study also found that temperature trend varied by region and season. While warming was prevalent over most of the Arctic, some areas, such as Greenland, appear to cool.

However, warming trends may still affect ocean processes, said Michael Steele, senior oceanographer at the University of Washington.

Water absorbs the sun’s energy rather than reflecting it into the atmosphere the way ice does. As the oceans warm and ice thins, more solar energy is absorbed by the water, creating further melting, said Steele.

This changes the temperature of ocean layers and marine habitats, he said.

The new Arctic warming study, to appear in the November issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate, was conducted to record Arctic changes and develop a better understanding of climate worldwide.

The surface temperature records were obtained through thermal infrared data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellites.

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On the Net:

http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/1023esuice.html

http://www.earth.nasa.gov