Oslo: New data for a study conducted by scientists from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute revealed extraordinary rates of global heating in the Arctic, up to seven times faster than the global average. The research is based on data from automatic weather stations on the islands of Svalbard and Franz Josef Land.
The data show annual average temperatures in the area are rising during the year by up to 2.7 degrees Celsius per decade, with particularly high rises in the months of autumn of up to 4 degrees Celsius per decade. This makes the North Barents Sea and its islands the fastest warming place known on Earth.
The research is based on data from automatic weather stations on the islands of Svalbard and Franz Josef Land.
The heating is happening in the North Barents Sea, and is suspected to trigger increases in extreme weather in North America, Europe and Asia. According to researchers the heating in the Barents sea region is an "early warning" of what could happen across the rest of the Arctic.
In the recent years, researchers have seen temperatures far above average recorded in the Arctic. It was already known that the climate crisis was driving heating across the Arctic three times faster than the global average, but the new research shows the situation is even more extreme in places.
"We expected to see strong warming, but not on the scale we found," said senior researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and who led the work Ketil Isaksen.
The study confirmed that based on what scientists know from all other observation points on the globe, these are the highest rates of warming observed to date.
"The broader message is that the feedback of melting sea ice is even higher than previously shown," he said. "This is an early warning for whats happening in the rest of the Arctic if this melting continues, and what is most likely to happen in the next decades."
The world's scientists said in April that immediate and deep cuts to carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases are needed to tackle the climate emergency.
