Scientists have recorded the greatest increase in temperatures in the Svalbard region

The press service of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute reported on the results of a study of air temperature in the Svalbard archipelago over the past 120 years. They concluded that the air in the northernmost point of Europe warms up three times faster than the average in the northern hemisphere.

According to experts, the increase in surface air temperature in the Svalbard region in recent decades has been occurring at an average rate of about 0.34 ° C over 10 years. This is about three times faster than the average in the northern hemisphere and in the regions of Russia.

Earlier, Russian and Norwegian scientists conducted joint research and came to the conclusion that on small islands north of Svalbard over the past 30 years, the temperature has begun to rise even more actively. For example, the estimates obtained for the Charles XXII Islands are about three times higher than similar estimates on the territory of the Russian Barentsburg.

The so-called "Arctic strengthening" is due to the complex processes of interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean in the presence of sea ice against the background of developing global warming on the planet. According to some estimates, the rate of warming observed in the Arctic today may lead to significant thinning of the ice sheet and its disappearance in the next 100 years.

Modern warming in the archipelago began in the mid-1980s. But since 1990, its intensity has increased. Researchers attribute this warming to a change in the nature of the general atmospheric circulation in the Western sector of the Arctic. It can be caused not only by natural processes, but also be associated with an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases, primarily CO2.