The Arctic is Changing Rapidly
Arctic sea ice extent and thickness are declining rapidly, simplifying access to oil and gas resources, allowing Trans-Arctic shipping, and shifting the distribution of harvestable resources. These projected socio-economical opportunities have brought the Arctic Ocean to the top of national and international political agendas.
At the same time, this sea-ice loss appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years (Polyak et al. 2010) and is taking place more rapidly than projected by any of the 18 global climate models used by the IPCC (IPCC, 2007). The persistent mismatch between observed and projected patterns makes planning and mitigation activities in the Arctic region complicated. Therefore, scientific knowledge of the present and past status of the Arctic Ocean and the process-based understanding of the mechanics of change are urgently needed to make useful projections of future conditions throughout the Arctic region.
At the same time, this sea-ice loss appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years (Polyak et al. 2010) and is taking place more rapidly than projected by any of the 18 global climate models used by the IPCC (IPCC, 2007). The persistent mismatch between observed and projected patterns makes planning and mitigation activities in the Arctic region complicated. Therefore, scientific knowledge of the present and past status of the Arctic Ocean and the process-based understanding of the mechanics of change are urgently needed to make useful projections of future conditions throughout the Arctic region.
(NASA)