Arctic Surface Temps Since 2005 Warmest On Record; Permafrost Temps Up 3.5 Degrees - Arctic Council

[hatrack]

Surface temperatures in the Arctic since 2005 have been higher than for any five-year period since record keeping began in 1880, according to a new report from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, an international group within the Arctic Council that monitors the Arctic environment and provides advice on Arctic environmental protection.

The rate of sea-ice decline has accelerated and the decline rate in the past 10 years has been higher than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted in 2007, the report says.

"Evidence from lake sediments, tree rings and ice cores indicates that Arctic summer temperatures have been higher in the past few decades than at any time in the past 2000 years," the report says. "Previously unseen weather patterns and ocean currents have been observed, including higher inflows of warm water entering the Arctic Ocean from the Pacific."

Temperatures in the Arctic permafrost have risen by up to 3.5 degrees in the past two to three decades, and the southern limit of the permafrost has been moving north, with the limit having retreated by 80 miles in the past 50 years in the Canadian province of Quebec, for example, the report says. Most Arctic glaciers and ice caps have shrunk in the past 100 years, especially in Canada and southern Alaska. Climate models predict a 10 to 30 percent drop in the mass of mountain glaciers and ice caps by the end of the century, with the melting of the Greenland ice sheet expected to accelerate.

EDIT

http://www.adn.com/2011/06/16/1921104/arctic-ice-melting-faster-than.html#ixzz1Pq3edpPe

[izquierdista]

1. Tree ring data?

I would think that data of that type would have to come from south of the tree line, like in the sub-Arctic. Although, now that they have been able to introduce commercial logging back into a warmer Greenland ( http://www.stamps.gl/en-US/news/newslist/Sider/05012011.aspx ), maybe that data will give new insights.