![]() The jet stream and weather patterns could shift as the Arctic ice cover continues to diminish, he said.Source: Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center Increasing temperatures and a warmer Arctic have global implications, Meier said. "Because of longer, warmer growing seasons coupled with shorter, less brutally cold winters, we've had a significant change in the vegetation structure … really changing the landscape," Miller said. What was once a frozen tundra landscape has practically become a new ecosystem, said Charles Miller, deputy science lead for the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. One of the very visible effects of the warming climate is the greening of the Arctic. Sustained above-average temperatures, as the planet has seen so far this century, can affect the ice sheet, global sea levels, ecosystems and more, according to Schmidt. ![]() "We're seeing the surface begin melting as much as two months ahead of schedule," he said.Īt the peak of summer, the Arctic sea-ice extent now covers 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, NASA said. Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said the low sea-ice extent seen in the first half of 2016 follows the continuing trend and is "not at all surprising given the warm air temperatures. By late September, Arctic sea ice could reach its lowest extent since satellite record-keeping began, NASA said. Five of the first six months of 2016 set records for lowest respective levels of monthly Arctic sea-ice extent (the area of ocean covered by the ice). These record-breaking temperatures have taken a toll on the Arctic, which has seen thinning and melting ice for more than a decade. Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally.
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