The Arctic Report Card 2022

In news– NOAA has released the Arctic Report Card 2022 recently.

What is the Arctic Report Card?

Issued annually since 2006 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific and regulatory agency, the Arctic Report Card is a timely and peer-reviewed source for clear, reliable and concise environmental information on the current state of different components of the Arctic environmental system relative to historical records.

Key highlights

Following are some of the Highlights of the report card for 2022:

The average surface air temperature over the Arctic for this past year (October 2021-September 2022) was the 6th warmest since 1900. The last seven years are collectively the warmest seven years on record.
In 2022 Arctic sea ice extent was similar to 2021 and well below the long-term average.
Satellite records from 2009 to 2018 show increasing maritime ship traffic in the Arctic as sea ice declines.
The most significant increases in maritime traffic are occurring from the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait and Beaufort Sea.
Low pressure across the Alaska Arctic and northern Canada sustained warm summer temperatures over the Beaufort Sea and Canadian Archipelago.
August 2022 mean sea surface temperatures continued to show warming trends for 1982-2022 in most ice-free regions of the Arctic Ocean.
The report card said that Between October 2021 and September, air temperatures above Arctic lands were the sixth warmest since 1900, noting that the seven warmest years have been the last seven.
Rising temperatures have helped plants, shrubs and grasses grow in parts of the Arctic tundra, and 2022 saw levels of green vegetation that were the fourth highest since 2000, particularly in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, northern Quebec and central Siberia.
The Greenland Ice Sheet experienced its 25th consecutive year of ice loss. In September 2022, unprecedented late-season warming created surface melt conditions over 36% of the ice sheet, including at the 10,500 ft ice sheet summit.
A new chapter in this year’s report deals with Arctic precipitation. Measuring snow, rain and freezing rain is tricky there: In the northernmost reaches of the region, there aren’t many weather gauges.
It says that precipitation levels have increased significantly in the Arctic since the mid-20th century. 2022 was the region’s third-wettest year since 1950.
Because of warmer temperatures, though, extra snow doesn’t necessarily remain on the ground. Snow accumulation in the Arctic was above average during the 2021-22 winter.