In February 2025, exceptionally high air temperatures and rainfall over Svalbard (an archipelago in the Arctic) triggered widespread snowmelt and pooling of meltwater.
- Human-caused global warming is particularly amplified in the Arctic, causing the climate in the Arctic to warm more quickly than the rest of the Earth, in a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification.
Factors for Arctic Amplification
- Reduced Albedo: When temperature rise, reflective layer of ice and snow cover in Arctic is gradually replaced by darker ocean water and exposed land, both of which absorb more solar energy.
- This absorption accelerates warming, resulting in additional ice and snow loss – constituting a feedback loop.
- Lapse rate feedback: In Arctic, warming from greenhouse gases is most pronounced near the surface while in the Tropics, extra heat spreads vertically due to convection.
- Water Vapour Triple Effect: Water vapour creates more cloud cover contributing to heating, release heat during condensation into water and acts as a greenhouse gas.
- Atmospheric Heat transport: A larger increase in moisture in the tropics increases the rate of heat transport from the tropics to the Arctic.
Impact of Arctic Amplification
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