Arctic warming faster than presumed: Finnish study - China.org.cn

The rate of polar warming has been underestimated, with the Arctic region warming four times faster than the world average over the past 43 years, a new study has revealed.

This is much faster than the previous estimates by the United Nations' climate science panel in 2019. At that time, it said the region was warming by more than double the global average due to a process known as Arctic amplification, or intense warming in the Arctic.

However, researchers from the Finnish Meteorological Institute have now published their analysis of post-1979 temperatures in the Arctic, in a recent issue of the scientific journal Communications Earth and Environment.

They say that the higher estimate stems from the strong and continued warming of the Arctic region. Their evaluation was also affected by how the Arctic is defined as an area, and the length of the period over which the rate of warming was calculated.

In the new study, the Arctic region was defined as the area within the Arctic Circle. The rate of warming was calculated from 1979, when more detailed satellite observations became available.