Map shows the temperature Canadian Nunavut’s Eureka Station on 11 August 2020, generated using data from Sentinel-3 Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR). Data courtesy of, and contains modified Copernicus Sentinel (2020) processed by, ESA,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Two interesting articles came out recently about the increase in temperatures in the Arctic, and the impact that this is having on the region and its ecosystems.
Firstly, at the end of last month, ESA reported that the Arctic had been suffering from a heatwave, wildfires and significant sea-ice loss. The Copernicus Climate Change Service recorded that it was the third warmest July on record for the globe, with the northern hemisphere seeing the hottest July on record. Extreme temperatures have also been present with the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, which is above the Arctic Circle, having a temperature of 38°C on the 20th June; a temperature more associated with a desert! Also, on 11th August the Canadian Nunavut’s Eureka Station recorded the highest temperature so far north at 21.9°C. Both the Arctic and the Antarctic have seen average temperatures rise by more the 2°C in the last five decades, twice the global average.
The temperatures have also contributed to wildfires in the region, most of which have been burning since mid-June, and a thawing of the Arctic permafrost releasing carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere from the previously frozen soil and associated organic matter. Between them, these phenomena have sent almost a quarter of billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The permafrost temperatures have also risen to record levels according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report. Earth observation satellites help monitor this temperature, as although they can’t measure the permafrost itself, a recent project by ESA’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI), combined in situ data with satellite measurements of land-surface temperature and land cover to estimate permafrost extent in the Arctic.
Finally, this heat caused the sea-ice to begin melting 30 days earlier than average. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the Arctic sea ice extent for July 2020 was nearly 27% below the average over the last forty years.
The second interesting article was a letter published at the end of July in Geophysical Research Letters by Jönsson, Sathyendranath & Platt. Titled ‘Trends in Winter Light Environment Over the Arctic Ocean: A Perspective From Two Decades of Ocean Colour Data’. The letter outlined research that showed winter conditions are starting later and finishing earlier in the Arctic, which leading to less sea-ice and less cloudy conditions that are creating much more favourable conditions for phytoplankton growth. This may mean earlier phytoplankton blooms occur in the area, and there is an increase in the number of blooms.
The team undertook their research using a variety of satellite data, from both microwave and optical sensors, and the data included:
- Ocean Colour data from NASAs Sea‐viewing Wide‐Field‐of‐view Sensor (SeaWiFS), NASA’s Aqua Moderate‐resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS‐Aqua), ESA’s MEdium spectral Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), and NOAA’s Suomo‐NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (NPP‐VIIRS) merged through the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative project.
- Sea ice data from EUMETSAT’s Satellite Application Facility on Ocean and Sea Ice and ESA CCI sea ice concentration climate data records.
- Photosynthetically Available Radiation from MODIS-Aqua.
What both reports reinforce is how interconnected everything is. If the coldness of the Arctic is impacted, it not only affects the area itself, but the global atmosphere, water conditions and phytoplankton growth that is the basis of the aquatic food chain. To understand the world, we need to stop thinking changes occur in isolation and think more about the entire world as a single ecosystem; a concept previously developed in the early 1970s by James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis as the co-evolution of biology and the physical environment where each influences each other. Given the ever-increasing divisions there are in the political and economic aspects of the planet, we need the environmental community to stand up and make itself heard!
