Arctic Report Card 2022

About the Arctic Report Card

• It presents annually updated, peer-reviewed information on recent observations of environmental conditions in the Arctic relative to historical records.
• The NOAA has been publishing the Arctic Report Card annually since 2006.
• Nearly 150 experts from 11 nations compiled this year’s assessment of Arctic conditions, the Arctic Report Card 2022.

Key highlights of the Arctic Report Card 2022

Arctic Amplification

• The Arctic continues to warm more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe, with even greater warming in some locations and times of year.
• This phenomenon is known as Arctic amplification.

Surface Air Temperature

• The average surface air temperature over the Arctic for this past year (October 2021-September 2022) was the 6th warmest since 1900.
• The last seven years are collectively the war
• mest seven years on record.

Sea Surface Temperature

• August 2022 mean sea surface temperatures continued to show warming trends for 1982-2022 in most ice-free regions of the Arctic Ocean.

Arctic Melting

• The Greenland Ice Sheet experienced its 25th consecutive year of ice loss.
• In September 2022, more than a third of the ice sheet experienced melting.

Arctic Precipitation

• Precipitation levels have increased significantly in the Arctic since the mid-20th century.
• This year was the region’s third-wettest since 1950, the report card said.
• Three main factors responsible for increasing precipitation:
  • Warmer air can hold more moisture
  • As sea ice retreats, storms can suck up more open ocean water.
  • Storms are passing over warmer water before reaching the Arctic, feeding them with more energy and resulting in more precipitation.

Consequences of Rapid Arctic Environmental Change:

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