Why Is The Arctic Melting So Fast?

The melting witnessed in the Arctic last summer was unprecedented, by a long shot.

Observations from instruments on the ground, balloons, and satellites show the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Summer sea-ice extent has decreased by nearly 40% compared to the 1979–2000 average, and the ice is thinning.

But why? Scientists have long predicted melting due to global warming, but the degree of melting last summer far out-paced expectations, to an alarming degree. Weather patterns that may come and go independently of global warming could also be playing a starring role in the unusual melting.

Now that it's spring, and another warming season is beginning, government scientists are flying a plane through the Arctic atmosphere, measuring levels of pollution, in hopes they can get to the bottom of that very important question.

“The Arctic is changing before our eyes,” said A.R. Ravishankara, director of the chemistry division at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. “Capturing in detail the processes behind this large and surprisingly rapid transformation is a unique opportunity for understanding climate changes occurring elsewhere.”

Here's how NOAA describes the research:

"Industry, transportation, and biomass burning in North America, Europe, and Asia are emitting trace gases and tiny airborne particles that are polluting the polar region, forming an “Arctic Haze” every winter and spring. Scientists suspect these pollutants are speeding up the polar melt.

"Called ARCPAC (Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate Change), the project is a NOAA contribution to International Polar Year 2008. The experiment will be coordinated with the agency’s long-term climate monitoring station at Barrow, Alaska, and with simultaneous projects conducted by NASA and the Department of Energy.

"'This is our first airborne deployment of a powerful new suite of instruments in the Arctic,' said ARCPAC lead scientist Dan Murphy, also of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory. 'When we analyze all the data, we’ll be able to piece together the equivalent of a 'high-def' movie of the atmosphere as springtime sunlight warms the region and sparks a chain of chemical reactions.'

"Scientists aboard the NOAA WP-3D research aircraft will use nearly 30 airborne sensors to answer questions about airborne particles, altered clouds, low-altitude ozone, and soot deposited on snow. All are produced or affected by human activities and may be playing key roles in the rapid warming.

"In a related study, also taking place this month, the NOAA-led International Chemistry Experiment in the Arctic Lower Troposphere (ICEALOT) will gather shipboard measurements of atmospheric fine particles and trace gases in the air above the North Greenland and Barents seas, which are closer to sources than the ARCPAC study area. NOAA scientists are eager to compare the pollution north of Alaska with the more recent emissions near Europe."