General overview of polar warming issues

• Main Author: Takashi Yamanouchi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Institute of Polar Research 2016-03-01
• Series: Antarctic Record
• Online Access: http://doi.org/10.15094/00011003

Are the Arctic and Antarctic really warming now? This review was performed in order to answer this question. In the recent, the strongest warming occurred in the Arctic and Antarctic Peninsula under the global warming. Warming in the Arctic is more than twice the global average, and sea ice has rapidly reduced in summer. A contribution of each processes have been investigated to determine which play the largest role in this Arctic warming amplification. On the other hand, despite strong warming in the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica, no meaningful warming has been seen in East Antarctica. What is the reason for this suppressed warming in East Antarctica? There has been some speculation that the ozone hole has been working as a suppressor of warming. Another effect of the Arctic warming is its influence on extreme weather in the mid-latitudes. Much current research is focused on the effect of Arctic warming on mid-latitude weather, with the aim of increasing our understanding of interaction between these regions.