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Not a Pretty Picture in the Arctic

Jun 15, 2011; 7:31 PM ET

The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme has released their 2011 update on the status of snow, water, ice and permafrost up in the Arctic and the news is not good.

The changing Arctic is clearly showing the signature of global warming as predicted by scientists for the past 20 years.

You can download the full report right here.

The kind folks at NASA's Earth Observatory have broken down the Arctic report into the key findings....

Pancake sea ice.

Here are some of the findings (facts) of the report (via NASA's Earth Observatory)

1. The 2005-2010 period was the warmest ever recorded in this region.

2. Snow and sea ice cover is present less during the year and the trend is for less areal coverage. Less snow and ice coverage means more of the sun's energy gets absorbed and further accelerates the overall warming.

3. Permafrost is warming.

4. The Greenland Ice Sheet, mountain glaciers and thicker, multi-year ice have melted faster since 2000 than in the previous decade.

5. Computer model forecasts reported in the previous IPCC report underestimated how quickly the sea ice is changing.

New projections from the report (via NASA).....

1. The Arctic Ocean will be nearly ice-free during the summer by the next 30 to 40 years. Based on what I am seeing, I would not be surprised if it happens within the next 20 years.

2. Arctic infrastructure will probably be damaged as permafrost and near-shore sea ice melt.

3. Loss of snow and ice and the release of greenhouse gases from melting permafrost will enhance global warming.

4. Melting glaciers and ice sheets contributed more than 40 percent of the global sea level rise (about 3 mm per year) between 2003 and 2008. Further melting will contribute substantially to the 0.9 to 1.6 meter sea-level rise expected by 2100.

Here is the link to the Earth Observatory story.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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Global Climate Change
In the AccuWeather.com Climate Change Blog, you will find links to the latest research, commentary by experts with various points of view on all aspects of Global Warming and Global Cooling.