Looking for polar climate visualizations? Start here: 📈📉

+ Arctic sea-ice extent: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice…
+ Arctic sea-ice thickness/volume: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice…
+ Arctic temperatures: zacklabe.com/arctic-tempera…
+ Antarctic sea ice: zacklabe.com/antarctic-sea-… You can also find...
+ Global sea ice: zacklabe.com/global-sea-ice…
+ Archives of Arctic climate rankings (2012-2022): zacklabe.com/archive-2022/

+ Long-term climate change: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-ice…
+ Arctic climate model projections compared to observations: zacklabe.com/climate-model-…

🧵 While extreme events receive a lot of the attention in the #Arctic, it's more the long-term trends that are transforming this part of the world. Interannual variability (e.g., weather) is also large, which is why not every year is a new record. Here are those January trends: Nearly all areas of the #Arctic have observed thinning ice over the last four decades. Trends in January are largest in the vicinity of the East Siberian Sea and north of Greenland.

[Data simulated from PIOMAS. For more info: doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D…]

The annual @NOAA Arctic Report Card is available today for 2021. It discusses recent changes in the #Arctic, extreme events, and broader human/environmental impacts.

+ Report: arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Re…
+ Video:
+ Highlights: arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card @NOAA @NOAAResearch @NOAANCEI I am happy again to have played a small role in this year's report - see our section on Arctic sea surface temperatures: arctic.noaa.gov/Report-Card/Re…

Also check out the fantastic collection of visuals by @NOAAClimate at climate.gov/news-features/…

This is really quite striking... Melt ponds are visible on satellite (blue shading) across much of the landfast sea ice along Siberia; e.g., in this image above the Lena River Delta.

[Satellite from 6 June 2021 using Sentinel-2; apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playg…]

More reading! A thread of peer-reviewed studies evaluating projections of 21st century Arctic sea-ice extent/area/thickness (seasonally ‘ice-free’)... 🧊📉

I am sure I missed a few, so feel free to add.

Note – I am not making any predictions from this thread 😅 + (02 – HadCM3 area/volume) doi.org/10.1029/2001GL…
+ (04 – ECHAM4/HadCM3 extent) doi.org/10.3402/tellus…
+ (05 – perspective) doi.org/10.1029/2005EO…
+ (06 – CMIP3 area) doi.org/10.1175/JCLI37…
+ (06 – CCSM3 extent) doi.org/10.1029/2006GL…

Over the last 5 years, there have been plenty of extreme weather/climate events in the #Arctic. While the scientific process takes time, there are now lots of studies investigating these cases. Please add to this thread with other peer-reviewed studies on recent Arctic extremes! *Overall trends/extremes/reviews*

+ Warming warming events: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
+ Poleward moisture transport: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.100…
+ Arctic cyclones: doi.org/10.1017/aog.20…
+ Arctic sea ice: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…
+ “New Arctic”: nature.com/articles/s4155…

🚨 2019 was the 2nd warmest year on record - @CopernicusECMWF analysis. An excellent summary is provided at climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-201…

While 2019 rankings between various data sets may differ slightly (e.g., 2 or 3), the long-term warming is undoubtedly clear... 🚨 Last year's #Arctic sea ice extent averaged the *2nd lowest* on record. Sea ice is declining in all months of the year (iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…).

Check out @NSIDC's annual/decade summary: nsidc.org/arcticseaicene…