Polar Heatwaves In Arctic And Antarctic – Free PDF Download

• Earth’s poles are undergoing simultaneous freakish extreme heat with parts of Antarctica more than 40 degrees Celsius warmer than average and areas of the Arctic more than 30 degrees Celsius warmer than average.

• Weather stations in Antarctica shattered records on Friday (March 18) as the region neared autumn.
• The Concordia station was warmer than average at -12.2C. Meanwhile, the Vostok station higher up stood at -17.7C, beating its all-time record by about 15C, according to a tweet from extreme weather record tracker Maximiliano Herrera.
• At the same time, some stations near the north pole reached 30C above normal, with records broken in Norway and unusually warm temperatures recorded in Greenland and the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land.
• On the same day, the Arctic as a whole was 3.3C warmer than the 1979 to 2000 average.

What is causing the high temperatures?

• Both of these weather events are related to the poleward transport of heat and moisture.
• Strong winds coming from Australia were contributing to the unusual temperatures in Antarctica.
• An atmospheric river was also a major contributing factor to the high temperatures in the eastern Antarctic.
• “These are rivers of moisture in the air that bring warm and moist air to certain locations, and there was a really significant one occurring in that region over Antarctica.”
• The moist air has trapped heat over the continent, resulting in the warm surface temperatures.
• Right now we’ve got the lowest sea ice extent on record in Antarctica.
• A lot of the sea ice around Antarctica that might be there normally close to the continent is now ocean.

How unusual are temperatures like this?

• The heat in eastern Antarctica was an “extraordinary event.” These are temperature anomalies of between 15 to 40C.
• It looks like large parts of eastern Antarctica reached over 20C warmer than normal. Warming started on the 15th [March] and still persists.
• The first of the precise temperature records start in the late 1950s, so it’s really hard to work out what’s remarkable and what’s not.
• But the impact of the climate crisis meant events like these would be a “view to the future.
• In the Arctic, temperatures have increased by nearly 1C in the past decade, with Northern Siberia and the Canadian Arctic warming three times faster than the rest of the world.
• A record temperature of 38C was recorded in the Russian Arctic during an Arctic heatwave in the 2020 northern hemisphere summer.

What are the consequences?

Weakening of ice shelves:

• In Antarctica, the heat “would have to persist for a fairly long period of time to make a substantial difference. The main concern is a weakening of ice shelves, extensions of ice sheets that float over the ocean. They play an important role in restraining inland ice.
• Once we lose ice shelves, grounded ice that sits inland would flow out faster … go to the ocean and cause sea level rise.
• There has been a sharp drop in Arctic sea ice this month at Svalbard, which has experienced anomalously high temperatures.
• Last year, researchers found that sea ice across much of the Arctic was thinning twice as quickly as previously thought. The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic collapsed in 2020 as a result of rising temperatures.
• The melting of ice results in a vicious cycle: a greater area of dark water is exposed, learning to increased absorption of the sun’s energy, which then causes more warming.

Solution

• A full decarbonization of the energy sector is necessary and possible.
• Renewables and energy efficiency are critical to the energy transition.
• The potential emission reduction thanks to renewable energy electricity totals 12.1 gigatonnes by 2050.
• Electrification of transport could reduce the sector’s CO2 emissions by a huge 72 per cent by 2050.
• Each sector and each country has unique opportunities to harness renewable energy, protect natural resources, lives and livelihoods, and transition to a decarbonization pathway.

India’s Arctic Policy

• India’s Draft Arctic Policy has been brought out by the Government of India to the public. The Arctic policy of India is committed to expanding scientific research, sustainable tourism and mineral oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region.
• India’s Arctic Policy roadmap for sustainable engagement draft rides on five pillars, they are –
  • Science and research activities,
  • Economic and human development cooperation,
  • Transportation and connectivity,
  • Governance and international cooperation, and
  • National capacity building.

Question:
Which line marks the boundary of the zone where the Sun never sets during June solstice and never rises during December Solstice?

1. Antarctic Circle
2. Arctic Circle
3. Tropic of Cancer
4. Tropic of Capricorn

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