Arctic Report Card: Update for 2023

"The Arctic continues to rapidly evolve, shaped by past and ongoing human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and push the broader Earth system into uncharted territory. Now in its 18th edition, this year’s Arctic Report Card (ARC2023) provides an updated annual view into the state of the Arctic by checking in on key Vital Signs—eight defining elements of the Arctic’s climate and environmental system. ARC2023 also samples critical and emerging Arctic topics, bringing into focus diverse collections of observations that help to assess the trajectory and impacts of Arctic change. Figure 1 locates some of these events in the pan-Arctic perspective and Fig. 2 is provided as a convenient place name reference.

This year’s physical and biological Vital Sign observations are in line with trends reported in past Arctic Report Cards—warming sea surface and surface air temperatures, decreasing snow cover, diminishing sea ice, both in spatial extent and thickness, and continued mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Year-to-year variations, in addition to long-term trends, are significant and can be especially important at regional scales.

Extreme weather and climate events during the past year in the Arctic and elsewhere have brought unambiguous, climate change-supercharged impacts to people and ecosystems. Such events vary in scale across time and space. In the span of a few hours, individual storms may create hardships and damage that last for years. Longer-term extremes, such as drought or prolonged high temperatures, also have direct, distinct impacts, produce cascading effects in other parts of the environment, and may exacerbate (or mitigate) shorter time frame weather extremes.."
Arctic Report Card 

Arctic Report Card: Climate change transforming Arctic into ‘dramatically different state’

"NOAA’s 2021 Arctic Report Card documents the numerous ways that climate change continues to fundamentally alter this once reliably-frozen region, as increasing heat and the loss of ice drive its transformation into a warmer, less frozen and more uncertain future. 

This year’s Arctic Report Card is the 16th annual volume of original, peer-reviewed environmental observations and analysis that documents rapid and dramatic shifts in weather, climate, terrestrial and oceanic conditions in the circumpolar region. Compiled by 111 scientists from 12 nations, it was released today during a virtual press conference hosted by the American Geophysical Union during its fall meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

“The Arctic Report Card continues to show how the impacts of human-caused climate change are propelling the Arctic region into a dramatically different state than it was in just a few decades ago,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “The trends are alarming and undeniable. We face a decisive moment. We must take action to confront the climate crisis.” 

The Arctic Report Card is organized into three sections. Vital Signs provides annual updates on seven topics: Surface Air Temperature; Terrestrial Snow Cover; Greenland Ice Sheet; Sea Ice; Sea Surface Temperature; Arctic Ocean Primary Productivity; and Tundra Greenness. Other Indicators explore topics that are updated periodically. Frostbites report on new and emerging issues, and topics that relate to long-term scientific observations in the Arctic. 

Some of this year’s significant findings include: 

• The October-December 2020 period was the warmest Arctic autumn on record dating back to 1900. The average surface air temperature over the Arctic this past year (October 2020-September 2021) was the 7th warmest on record. The Arctic continues to warm more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe.
• The snow-free period across the Eurasian Arctic during summer 2020 was the longest since at least 1990. June 2021 snow cover in Arctic North America was below the long-term average for the 15th consecutive year. June snow cover in Arctic Europe has been below average 14 of the last 15 years. 
• Following decades of relative stability, the Greenland ice sheet has now lost mass almost every year since 1998, with record ice loss in 2012 and 2019. In August, rainfall was observed at the Greenland ice sheet’s 10,500-foot summit for the first time ever.
• The volume of post-winter sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in April 2021 was the lowest since records began in 2010. The amount of older, biologically important multiyear sea ice at the end of summer 2021 was the second-lowest since records began in 1985.
• The total extent of sea ice in September 2021 was the 12th lowest on record. All 15 of the lowest minimum extents have occurred in the last 15 years. The substantial decline in Arctic ice extent since 1979 is one of the most iconic indicators of climate change.
• The loss of sea ice has enabled shipping and other commercial and industrial activities to push deeper into the Arctic, in all seasons, resulting in more garbage and debris collecting along the shore and more noise in the ocean, which can interfere with the ability of marine mammals to communicate. 
• Some of the fastest rates of ocean acidification around the world have been observed in the Arctic Ocean. Two recent studies indicate a high occurrence of severe dissolution of shells in natural populations of sea snails, an important forage species, in the Bering Sea and Amundsen Gulf..."
  Arctic Report Card: 2021