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Arctic2k
 about Arctic2k
Climate change in the Arctic is amplified due to the ice-albedo and snow-albedo feedback effects. Warming in the Arctic has been double that for the globe both from 19th to 21st century and from late 1960s to present (ACIA, 2005). This trend has further accelerated during the past decade as evidenced by both the dramatic decrease of summer sea ice cover and increased melt rates of glaciers (i.e. Comiso et al., 2008; Kohler et al., 2007). It is expected that anthropogenic global warming is and will be superimposed on natural variability. Unfortunately, most of the Arctic instrumental measurements only extend back to mid-20th century limiting our understanding of multi-decadal and –centennial spatial and temporal natural variability in the Arctic.
The PAGES Working Group (WG) on arctic climate during the last two millennia (Arctic2k) was launched in March 2008 to generate and synthesize high-resolution paleoclimate data to assess and elucidate both the timing and variability of the Arctic climate change during this period.
References:
Comiso, J. C., C. L. Parkinson, R. Gersten, and L. Stock (2008), Accelerated decline in the Arctic sea ice cover, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L01703, doi:10.1029/2007GL031972.
Kohler, J., James, T.D., Murray, T., Nuth, C., Brandt, O., Barrand, N.E., Aas, H.F. & Luckman, A. 2007:Acceleration in thinning rate on western Svalbard glaciers. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34: L18502, doi:10.1029/2007GL030681.
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