Arctic update for 2022
NOAA released an update to their annual Arctic report card with new data from recent climate studies on the region.
To no surprise, the Arctic continues to warm at twice the rate as the rest of the planet and in some cases even more than that.
The water year from October 2021 to September 2022 was the sixth warmest on record for the Arctic, which combines both land and ocean surfaces.
Surface temperature anomalies of the Arctic vs. the entire planet going back to 1900. Image courtesy NOAA.
Arctic sea ice continues to see a steady, long-term decline in the Arctic.
Arctic sea ice extent anomalies for March and September relative to the 1991-2020 average going back to 1979.
By far, the steepest decline in Arctic sea ice extent over the past 40+ years has been during the month of September, which is typically the end of the summer melt season. With less ice coverage and more open water, the surface albedo decreases, which in turn allows more of the sun's energy to be absorbed by the surface, leading to warming.
A better measurement of the health of the sea ice is the age and thickness of the ice. Older, multi-year ice typically can survive a melt season, whereas thinner, younger ice usually completely melts out during the summer.
The chart below shows that multiyear and old ice continues to decline in the Arctic, which means that a greater percentage of the sea ice is younger and thinner, which is increasing the odds of much more open water towards the end of the melt season in the Arctic.
Arctic sea age at the end of the summer melt season in 1985 compared to 2022. Clear decline in multiyear sea ice in the Arctic over the past 30+ years.
It's not just Arctic sea ice that is in decline. Land-based ice is also in serious decline, which also contributes to sea level rise in addition to thermal expansion.
The Greenland Ice Sheet has had a net loss of ice mass every year since 1998, and there are no signs of this changing anytime soon as the Arctic region continues to steadily warm.
Total Greenland Ice Sheet mass change since 2002.
During the 2021-2022 period, the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet likely contributed about 0.4 mm to the global sea level rise.
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