The latest report says temperatures in the Arctic hit an all-time high

Xinhua News Agency, Washington, December 13-the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released its latest report on the 13th, saying that due to the influence of human carbon emissions and El Ni ñ o, the Arctic region has warmed twice as fast as other parts of the earth in the past year, setting a record temperature; and the ice and snow cover in the Arctic region is also shrinking.

The peer-reviewed report, called the Arctic report 2016, is funded by the US federal government and has been released annually since 2006. This year's report was completed by 61 scientists from all over the world.

"rarely have we seen a clear, strong and more significant signal of sustained warming in the Arctic and its knock-on effects on the environment as this year," commented Jeremy Mathis, lead author of the report and director of the Arctic Research Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The report said that Arctic temperatures from October 2015 to September 2016 were "the highest since records began in 1900"; the average was 2 degrees Celsius higher than the average from 1981 to 2010 and 3.5 degrees Celsius higher than the average temperature in the region in 1900. In addition, during this period, the Arctic ocean temperature is 5 degrees Celsius higher than the average sea temperature off the coast of Greenland over the past 30 years.

The warming trend in the Arctic is also reflected in the area covered by ice and snow. The report points out that October to November each year should be the season for the refreezing of Arctic sea ice, but this time point in 2016 has been significantly delayed. From mid-October to November 2016, the Arctic sea ice area was the lowest since satellite records began in 1979, 28 per cent lower than the 1981-2010 average. Compared with previous years, the Greenland ice sheet began to melt earlier in the spring, with 2016 starting on April 10, second only to 2012 in the 37 years on record. At the same time, snow cover in the Arctic, including northern Alaska, northern Canada and Greenland, hit an all-time low this spring, falling below 1.5 million square miles (3.9 million square kilometers) for the first time since satellite observations began in 1967.

"it is clear that the record-breaking delay in sea ice freezing in the fall of 2016 is related to unprecedented high temperatures and ocean surface temperatures," the scientists said in the report.

Mathis attributed the trend of Arctic warming to two reasons, one is global warming caused by man-made carbon emissions, and the other is the global El Ni ñ o phenomenon.

The report also warns that the warming of the Arctic will release more carbon dioxide from the tundra and that if the melting trend of the tundra continues, it will "have a profound impact on the weather and climate in the Arctic and other parts of the earth."