14 DAY TRIAL // The conclusions of the latest Arctic Report Card, a document created every year by scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), indicate that, although values measuring the health of Arctic ices are closer to their long-term average, the North Pole is still struggling with the effects of global temperature increases.
NOAA develops the Card annually alongside organizations such as NASA. The document covers a variety of topics, ranging from air temperature and snow cover to sea ice extent, wildlife behavior, ocean temperatures and vegetation growth patterns.
For all of these factors, the values recorded throughout 2013 were a little bit closer to the long-term average than values recorded last year, but significant discrepancies from the mean can be easily observed this year as well. For example, the Barents Sea Opening was 3 degrees Celsius (5°F) warmer than last year, which is a massive difference.
“The major changes that we see in the sea ice, the spring snow cover extent, the increasing vegetation, the potential changes in greenhouse gases fluxes – these are all things that have implications that extend beyond just the Arctic to the rest of the world,” comments Howard Epstein, a scientists with the University of Virginia.