A Climate-Conscious Lent: Arctic ice and permafrost

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Rising temperatures are transforming the Arctic, melting sea ice, thawing permafrost, greening the tundra and intensifying wildfires. The 12-month period between October 2019 and September 2020 — which scientists consider the Arctic meteorological year — was the second warmest on record, exceeded only by October 2015 to September 2016.

In a 2017 interview with Christopher Joyce at NPR, Arctic scientist Jeremy Mathis said, "The environment is changing so quickly in such a short amount of time that we can't quite get a handle on what this new state is going to look like."

Because there is less polar snow and ice to reflect heat back into space, more heat is being absorbed by the ocean, resulting in unprecedented warming. In some places, polar ocean temperatures are as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they were a few decades ago. That can change weather patterns around the globe. "Whether they be wildfires out in California or hurricanes down in the Gulf," Mathis added. "We have to think about the impacts that changes in the Arctic are having on those disruptive climate events."

The Greenland ice sheet, which is the largest outside of Antarctica and plays a key role in ocean circulation, lost 3.8 trillion tons of ice between 1992 and 2018, according to NASA. The ice is melting at seven times the melt rate of the early 1990s. That contributes considerably to rising sea levels, which could put as many as 400 million people in jeopardy by the end of the century.

NASA's Operation IceBridge monitors Arctic ice from the air, gathering data and creating detailed images. Fantastic 3D maps of the ice sheet have helped researchers locate the rare remains of Eemian ice, which dates back to before the last Ice Age, more than 100,000 years ago, when Earth was warmer. By drilling deep into the ice, glaciologists can extract ice cores that contain materials such as volcanic ash or frozen bubbles of ancient air. Those clues make it possible to reconstruct prehistoric climates, helping scientists understand how climate change could affect the planet in the future.