Hottest Summer In 120-Year Record For Svalbard; Permafrost Temps Up 2C At 10-Meter Depth
Glaciers are melting, permafrost thaws and buildings are sagging. What scares the scientists most is studies of decomposing carbon from beneath the ground being emitted to the atmosphere as CO2 or methane. These greenhouse gases will then contribute to further climate changes, causing more Arctic permafrost to melt. Such self-reinforcing cycle, called the permafrost carbon feedback, is now studied at several locations at Svalbard.
“When I started studying permafrost in the late 1990s, I didn’t think this was something I was going to experience,” says Ketil Isaksen, Senior Researchers at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. “Core samples from Janssonhaugen shows an increase in temperatures of more than 2°C at a depth of 10 meters. Measurements of the temperatures show a steady increase over the last 20 years,” Isaksen tells.
The researchers have made one drilling to 102 meters depth and another 15 meters down in the permafrost. “This summer has been extreme,” Isaksen says, pointing to the temperatures measured every summer since 1899.
Average temperatures for June, July and August have varied from year. Until about 1990, this variation was typically 0,5 to 1°C with some single years 1,5°C over or under the normal. In the 1990s, a clear change was observed, and after 1997 the researchers have not registered a single summer with a mean temperature under the normal.
EDIT
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/climate-crisis/2020/09/svalbard-experienced-hottest-summer-record
