The NOAA has released its 2023 Arctic Report Card. The annual report, now in its 18th year, is the work of 82 authors from 13 countries and documents how human-caused warming of the air, ocean and land affects the Arctic region.
The NOAA documented the effects on the arctic by measuring eight key vital signs: Surface Air Temperature, Terrestrial Snow Cover, Precipitation, Greenland Ice Sheet, Sea Ice, Sea Surface Temperature, Arctic Ocean Primary Productivity and Tundra Greenness. It also includes four chapters on emerging issues and a special report on the 2023 summer of extreme wildfires.
This year’s vital signs observations are in line with trends reported in past Arctic Report Cards – that is to say, not great. The report documented warming sea surface and surface air temperatures, decreasing snow cover, diminishing sea ice and continued mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet.
There were some standout findings in the report, such as how average surface air temperatures for the Arctic as a whole in the past year ranked as the sixth warmest since 1900, and summer (July through September) was the warmest on record. This year’s sea ice extent was the sixth lowest in the satellite record, which began in 1979. The Greenland Ice Sheet continued to lose mass despite above-average winter snow accumulation. A new chapter in the report also emphasized how the unprecedented abundance of sockeye salmon in western Alaska’s Bristol Bay contrasted with record-low Chinook and chum salmon that led to fishery closures on the Yukon River and other Bering Sea tributaries.
“The overriding message from this year’s report card is that the time for action is now,” said Rick Spinrad, a NOAA administrator. “NOAA and our federal partners have ramped up our support and collaboration with state, tribal and local communities to help build climate resilience. At the same time, we as a nation and global community must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are driving these changes.”
